Cousin Tinas Roasted Red Pepper Tomato Soup Food

ROASTED RED PEPPER & TOMATO SOUP WITH RICOTTA

Steps:

• Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Put the tomatoes, onion and peppers in a roasting tin, toss with the oil and season. Nestle in the garlic and thyme sprigs, then roast for 25-30 mins until all the veg has softened and slightly caramelised. Squeeze the garlic cloves out of their skins into the tin, strip the leaves off the thyme and discard the stalks and garlic skins. Mix the vinegar into the tin then blend everything in a bullet blender or using a stick blender, adding enough water to loosen to your preferred consistency (we used around 150ml).
• Reheat the soup if necessary, taste for seasoning, then spoon into two bowls and top each with a spoonful of ricotta, a few basil leaves, the seeds and a drizzle of oil. Serve with bread for dunking.

ROASTED RED PEPPER AND TOMATO SOUP

Steps:

• Turn the top broiler on in your oven.
• Slice the red bell peppers, tomatoes and onion in half. Remove the seeds and stems from the bell peppers, the stems from the tomatoes and the outer peel from the onion. Then, place these all on a baking tray and drizzle the veggies with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Use your fingers to rub the oil and seasoning on both sides of the veggies.
• Roast the veggies for 25-30 minutes, or until the top side is charred black.
• Use tongs to transfer the bell pepper to a glass bowl and cover with plastic wrap for about 20 minutes, to steam the bell pepper.
• When the other veggies are cool enough to handle, remove their skins and transfer to your Vitamix or high-powered blender. You should be able to easily squeeze out the garlic cloves from their skin as well.
• Add the tomato paste, balsamic vinegar, dried basil and water (or stock) to your blender. Blend everything on high until smooth.
• At this stage, the soup will be warm. If you'd like it hotter, blend for 4-5 minutes. The friction of the Vitamix blades will heat it up.
• Before serving, top with optional garnish.

ROASTED RED PEPPER AND TOMATO SOUP

Steps:

• Pre heat oven to 425 degrees.
• Line 1 cookie sheet with tin foil - wash and cut tomatoes in half, arrange cut side down on cookie sheet, drizzle generously with good extra virgin olive oil, course, kosher or sea salt and a touch of ground pepper - bake until tomato peels have split and developed a nice caramelized texture. Approximately 45 - 60 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool, remove tomato skins.
• While the tomatoes are caramelizing in the oven take your red peppers and blacken them over an open gas flame or in the case you do not have gas this can also be accomplished over an electric element simply by allowing the pepper contact with the heating coil till it blackens, or you could also do this on a gas grill. Place blackened peppers in a brown paper bag and allow to cool - I always make sure I have a plastic bag on the outside as the juices from the peppers will soak through as they cool. Once cooled remove skins, tops, ribs and seeds. Do not wash.
• In a large soup pot add 1 tbsp olive oil add onions, garlic and sauté till onions appear clear. Add chicken stock, white wine, tomato paste, basil, tomatoes and peppers. Allow to cook for approximately 30 minutes. If you have a hand held blender, puree until a creamy texture is accomplished, or you can do this in a blender a few cups at a time being very careful not to over crowd the blender as the top will pop off with the heat. Return the pureed mixture back to the pot add pepper flakes and reduce over medium heat for 10 minutes - if desired add cream and serve!

ROASTED RED PEPPER AND TOMATO SOUP

Steps:

• Roast peppers: rub oil on peppers and put them under the broiler until blackened, turn to get all sides. Put into paper bag and seal. Let rest for 15 minutes, then peel will come right off and core and seeds will fall out. Chop peppers. Reserve one chopped pepper; set aside.
• Heat olive oil over moderate heat. Add onion and garlic and cook until soft but not brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomato, bell peppers (except reserved), thyme, paprika, and sugar. Cook over medium-low heat until all the tomato juices have evaporated, about 25 minutes.
• Stir in chicken stock, salt and pepper, cayenne pepper, and hot sauce (if using). Bring to boiling, lower heat, and simmer, partially covered, for 25 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
• Strain soup, reserving broth. Place solids in food processor or blender, and process until fairly smooth. Add puree back into broth.
• Melt butter and stir in the flour, cook for 1 minute. Stirring slowly, add the broth/vegetable mixture. Add reserved chopped pepper and bring to boiling. Lower heat and simmer 10 minutes.
• Ladle into bowls and add 1 tablespoon of sour cream to each bowl. For a lighter soup, this is also delicious without the sour cream.

COUSIN TINA'S ROASTED RED PEPPER & TOMATO SOUP

Steps:

• Roast red peppers in oven, peel skins and cut into small pieces. Set aside.
• In a large pot, sautee onions, carrots and garlic in olive oil over med heat until soft.
• Increase heat to med-high. Add veg stock and can of tomatoes (juice and all).
• Add all other ingredients(peppers, potatoes, plum tomatoes, soup stock) and bring to boil, continue to cook over medium boil until potatoes break apart when pierced with fork.
• Add salt (approx 1tsp) at some point before finishing, I like to add fresh ground pepper too. Just season to your preference. Remove from heat.
• Put soup in blender and blend until pureed and smooth.