Slinky Red Soup with Roasted Pepper and Tomato
Serves 4
A delicious way to serve vitamins in a bowl and a firm favourite with all my family. You can remove the tomato skins if you prefer, but this isn’t an essential part of the recipe. Roasting garlic cloves in their skin helps to add sweetness, rather then an overpowering flavour of garlic. The soup can be stored in the fridge for up to five days. I’ve also made this recipe by adding only half the amount of stock and simmering it for approximately 45 minutes. By simmering for longer and with less stock, you end up with a much thicker consistency, resulting in an Italian-style sauce which is a great accompaniment to chicken or fish.
What you need
4 red peppers, seeds and stalks removed
3-5 tbsp coconut oil, melted (depending on how generous you are with drizzling)
6 large vine tomatoes, green stalk removed, cut into halves
2 garlic cloves, skin on
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 tbsp sun-dried tomato paste
350ml hot, organic vegetable stock
2 tbsp basil leaves, chopped (plus several extra leaves for garnish)
Small handful fresh tarragon leaves (for garnish)
Salt and pepper
What you do
Pre-heat the oven to 200˚C.
Halve the peppers lengthways, remove the stalks and seeds and season well. Place into a large roasting tin and drizzle with one to two tablespoons of coconut oil. Toss the peppers to coat them in the oil.
Place the tomato halves and whole garlic cloves in a separate roasting tin, season, and drizzle with one to two tablespoons of coconut oil.
When the oven is hot, place the two tins into the oven with the peppers on the uppermost shelf. Roast the peppers for about 25 minutes until you see that the pepper skins have started to blister. Once the skins are blistering, remove the peppers from the oven and while they are still hot, place them in a clean sandwich bag and seal to allow the peppers to steam. After several minutes, peel off the pepper skins (which will be really easy) and discard.
After approximately 35 minutes, remove the tomatoes and garlic from the oven. If you are planning to remove the tomato skins, now is the time to do it.
Meanwhile, heat half a tablespoon of coconut oil in a large, heavy-based pan and gently fry the onion for approximately seven minutes.
Squeeze the garlic flesh from the skin and add the garlic to the frying onion.
Add the peppers, tomatoes, tomato paste, stock and basil leaves to the onion mixture.
Season well and stir to combine.
Simmer the mixture gently for 15 minutes before allowing it to cool slightly which will make it easier to handle.
If you like a really smooth texture for your soup, pour the mixture into a food processor, or alternatively pulse with a hand held blender if you prefer a more rustic finish.
Garnish with either torn basil, or tarragon.
