Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

Roasted tomato soup

Roasted Tomato Basil Soup
Roasted tomato basil soup

I love growing tomatoes in the summer. This year I opted to not cage them, partly out of cheapness (not wanting to buy new cages), and partly out of curiosity to see what would happen if they sprawled all over the deck. Well, they did sprawl and they took up more room than they would have caged, however I don’t think it made any difference in the quantity or quality of fruit.

One of my favourite things about growing tomatoes is making tomato soup when the harvest is at its peak. This is a simple, fool-proof recipe. I haven’t tried it with store-bought tomatoes, but it should work just as well. There is no added cream, but it is a very creamy soup. I think this is due to the olive oil combining with the natural sugars of the tomatoes that are released during roasting. My husband said he would pay $30 for a bowl of this soup!

Ingredients

2-3 pounds of assorted fresh tomatoes
1/2 a red onion (or more if you love onion)
1/2 or 1 full bunch of fresh basil
4-6 garlic cloves
1/2 cup olive oil
sea salt and fresh black pepper
a couple splashes of balsamic vinegar

Directions

Gather tomatoes in 1 large or 2 medium size roasting dishes. I used a 9″ cake pan, and a ceramic dish. Cut the larger tomatoes in half or quarters, you can leave cherry and grape tomatoes as is. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Chop onion in chunks and divide over tomatoes. Throw in garlic cloves whole. Drizzle olive oil over mixture. Crack pepper and sprinkle salt on top. Give them a stir and put in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove and add the basil. Return to oven for 10 more minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly so you don’t burn yourself adding to the blender. Pour mixture in blender and add a couple splashes of balsamic vinegar. Blend together, taste for salt and pepper seasoning, adjust if necessary. Pour into bowls and garnish with grated parmesan and/or fresh basil. Serve with some slices of french bread, or if you want to get fancy, toast some french bread slices with a bit of olive oil and grated cheese to make crostinis.

*Update: I have also made many times adding the fresh basil at the blending stage, rather than roasting at the end and the flavour is equally delicious. I now have a convection toaster oven and usually roast in there on bake at 400F for 20-25 minutes total.

Freshly picked tomatoes for tomato soup
Freshly picked tomatoes
cooked tomatoes basil and onion for roasted tomato soup
Cooked tomatoes and seasonings.
Yellow grape tomoates
tomatoes on the vine on deck
Sprawling tomatoes

Comments

11 responses to “Roasted tomato soup”

  1. leon Avatar
    leon

    The cooked tomatoes look delicious! Will you do the sprawling tomatoes thing again? Or cage them next year?

    1. admin Avatar
      admin

      Thanks Leon! I am not sure, might cage them next time to get a little more deck space, but it is also fun to watch them turn into a tomato jungle.

  2. Tyler Avatar

    This soup is off the hook!!!!! I’m the guy that said he’d pay thirty bucks a bowl and I’m not even joking a little bit. This soup was easy to watch being made and the results are, BEST SOUP EVER!!!

    1. aldea Avatar
      aldea

      Thanks Tyler! Hopefully we have enough tomatoes left on the vines to get one more batch this year.

  3. leon Avatar
    leon

    I tried this recipe with tomatoes from my garden… it was delicious! I didn’t have that many tomatoes, so I added a bit of chicken stock and then cooked it down and then added some milk, and then added some rice. I cooked it for another 20 minutes or so and now I have delicious tomatoe rice soup! Yeah!

    1. aldea Avatar
      aldea

      Sounds delicious Leon! We still have some tomatoes left on our plants, but probably not enough for a full batch of soup so I’ll have to try this rice variation.

  4. Kim Avatar
    Kim

    Aldea, I guess this is what Laurie was talking about. My tomato plants are going nuts so I’m going to put this to good use soon.

    1. aldea Avatar

      Nice Kim! Let us know how it goes.

  5. Jordan Avatar
    Jordan

    I am so excited to try this for lunch today! Have you ever made extra and froze it?

    1. Aldea Avatar

      I have! It freezes well. Do you still have tons of tomatoes? We made a bunch of sauce and used the ones you gave me with this recipe: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2013/09/tomato-basil-simmer-sauce-with-roasted-garlic-for-canning/

  6. […] Aldea’s recipe is so easy.  Bang it all in a pan, roast for 40 mins, pop it all in the blender and it’s done.  Woot woot – super easy.  So without further ado, I leave you with the link to my lovely friend Aldea’s recipe. […]

Leave a Reply to aldea Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *