Roasted Tomato Basil Soup
Tomatoes seem to be an easy thing to grow. I’m getting tons from my CSA and even a few from my father-in-law’s garden. His actually tasted better. I think next year I’ll give it a try and grow some. I love the orange ones and I only received a few in my CSA. But for now, I have lots of red gems waiting to be eaten. Well I hate to see good food go to waste and I can only eat so many BLGT sandwiches.
I decided to make tomato soup. Jessie at Glutenfree4goofs Blog recently posted on her One Ton Tomato Soup. (I helped name it) That got me thinking a soup would be a great way to use them all at once. I did consider Sun Dried Tomatoes from Linda at Gluten Free Homemaker. That however meant I’d have to pay attention to the oven over a long period of time. I tend to forget that I’m cooking if I leave the kitchen and get busy with my other work. Oh look at that bunny rabbit. So I thought I’d combine roasted tomatoes and soup. I love to use roasted tomatoes for chili but didn’t want to can them, so soup it is.
I roasted the tomatoes and then pureed them to make soup. It was really easy and the soup tastes amazing. It was so good that even Scott loved it. The same guy that I have to hide vegetables for him to enjoy them. His tastes are however growing and we ate this soup with a slice of gluten free bread and a glass of iced tea. That’s it!
I kept the soup vegetarian and vegan but if you want you can use chicken broth instead of water. Water however has less calories and costs less so if those things are a consideration for you, it really tastes great with just water. Use this recipe as a guide and adjust the ingredient amounts according to what you have on hand.
If you are the cheese eating type, fresh grated Parmesan cheese would be a great topping. If you’re the meat eating type some cooked pancetta crumbled on top would be divine.
Ingredients:
12 organic tomatoes or however many you have on hand
1 large organic onion diced
4 large cloves of garlic chopped
5 ounces of fresh basil leaves
Sea Salt and Pepper to taste
2 cups of filtered water
Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Directions:
Wash and cut your tomatoes into quarters. The only thing I removed was the stem. Toss them with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place on cookie sheet in single layer. Roast in a pre-heated oven at 450 degrees for 45 minutes. You’ll want them to burn a little on the edges but not too much. Black spots are good. When they are done let them cool a little while you saute the onions and garlic in olive oil. I work on the onions first until they are starting to brown a little and then add in the garlic.
Now add in your tray of tomatoes, liquid and all. Gage by how that looks as to how much water you want to add. I used 2 full cups of filtered water. I only cook or drink filtered water. I don’t want all of those other chemicals messing with the taste of my food. Now toss in your basil leaves and stir. I weighed it to see how much I was using. To eye ball it I would say it was 2-3 large handfuls of basil leaves. If you don’t have fresh you can use dried basil. Keep in mind the flavor intensifies when dried so start off with 2 tsp of basil and add from there.
At this point I took the soup off the stove and used my Immersion Blender to puree. If you don’t have one you can use a blender. Do it in small batches and make sure you vent the top but cover with a dish cloth. If you’re using the immersion blender, don’t lift it up when it’s on. The soup will go everywhere. No I didn’t do this but if I was baking something, well that’s another story.
If you puree your soup there is no reason to peel and seed the tomatoes. If you want pure liquid and no texture pour the soup through a strainer. I like the extra fiber in my meal so I don’t strain mine.
Basil in soup waiting to be pureed
This soup cost me next to nothing to make since I harvested the basil from my garden and were given some of the tomatoes used. Basil is such an easy plant to grow and it produces more basil than I can use. I’ll show you over the weekend what to do with your extra basil.
We each had a large bowl of soup and I froze enough for 6 more bowls. This will be a great meal to pull out this fall after a chilly soccer game. My only question is what to serve with it that doesn’t include cheese. What do you serve with your tomato soup that doesn’t include cheese?
OOh MY what a delicious twist! I love the roasting! I might have to try that next. We made more soup today. Enjoy
Jessie- with my computer crashing and then being away it's taken me 2 weeks to reply and in that time all of the soup that I froze is gone! Time to hit the farmer's market and get more tomatoes.
I almost forgot, gluten free toast! I promise the recipe I mentioned is coming soon. 😉 Maybe baked potatoes or avacado sandwiches.
Jessie- I like the idea of an avocado sandwich with the tomato soup. I'm going to give that one a try.
I so love a good tomato soup (and this one looks terrific–Amy just posted a tomato basil soup, too–it's the fall air I think!), but Mr. GFE does not. I don't see that changing, so I mostly do smaller servings of tomato soup.
Corn tortilla "crisps" (like I use in my tortilla soup) would be tasty in this soup, Diane.
Shirley
Shirley- Love the idea of the tortilla crisps for the soup. When I make more soup I'm going to have it with those crisps. Thanks for the great idea!
…I should invest in an immersion blender…
Katrina- I saw some small ones but I really love my Kitchen Aid. It has multiple speeds. You'll love having it. Works on soups, stews, even making refried beans will be easier.
Your soup looks delicious. I love tomato and basil soup, and roasting the tomatoes would do so much to intensify the flavors! Yum.
Alta- Thank you! I'm bummed the soup is gone already. Time to make more!
I just made tomato basil soup today!
I debated going the roasted route, but skipped it for ease. May try this on another day!
Alisa- If you make the roasted version let me know what you think about the difference in taste. I wonder how different each variety of tomatoes has on the soup too.
We are definitely on the same wave length! I just posted Tomato Basil Soup last week…I didn't roast the toms, though. Yours looks delish! Love that immersion blender!! Mine gets tons of use.
Amy- I don't think we can get enough of this soup. I'd love to know what you think about the difference between the roasted and not roasted flavors. Let me know if you try it roasted.
Hi Diane: This is my kind of soup. Looks delicious and very easy to make. I'll be trying this recipe.
Hi Rhonda- I'd love to hear how it turns out for you. I think this is one of those great soups that can have many tastes and can be made in many different ways. I hope you'll share yours.
This looks really good! I recently got some Himalayan sea salt and organic peppercorns from Sustainable Sourcing https://secure.sustainablesourcing.com and I think I'll use them in this recipe tonight. Thanks for sharing!
Jessica- I just bought some pink Himalayan salt. I can't wait to try it. How do you like to use it?
Just made this with basil and tomatoes from the garden…super yummy, thank you!