My brain is buzzing with all sorts of happy fall feelings. Warm, fuzzy feelings about sweaters, socks, and the smell of decomposing leaves. I think that we are pretty much entering the fall season around here and I couldn't be happier. (about the weather)
Fall means soup. Soup all the time. And yeah, I am a soup person all year round, but soup in the fall just so right and almost taste better because: one, you are not sweating profusely while making and eating it, Two, there is so much fantastic stuff coming from the farm and garden that the ingredients are just aces. And three, pretty leaves and cozy cuddles on the couch make soup a magic treat.
Doesn't that sound about right?
And this soup is one of my go to favorites. Especially this time of year when I have tomatoes coming out of my ears and peppers stuck into every available crevice in the fridge. (Oh what farm people problems I have) I take all of my tomatoes, pick out the best looking ones, stick those back on the tables, and use the leftover ones, the ones that are starting to maybe go a little or are not as pretty as the others. Then I do the same with the peppers, whichever ones are starting to go or looking a little sad, I grab those and use those as well. That's another thing about soup, you can use the veggies that might not be up to snuff for other dishes. Soup is a good way to cut back on any food waste! Soup. Tastes so good and is combating food waste with ever bowl! But yes, you can use the prettiest of your produce too cause if you don't use the pretty up, it will eventually turn into the not so pretty and mold stuff. Anyways..
Roasted red peppers and roasted tomatoes= (in a Mavin Gay voice) Oh yeah!
Now lets just crank on the oven and make the soup!
The stuff. Tomatoes, peppers, onion, garlic, a lemon, salt pepper and olive oil.
Take tomatoes, remove cores and chop into chunks. Remove stem and seeds from peppers and chop into a few chunks as well. Grab the onion and chop that up too.The garlic can go in as whole cloves.. no need for chunks.
Dump it all into a well oiled skilled or dutch oven and sprinkle well with salt and pepper. Place into oven to roast away.
And when everything in the skillet is all roasted soft and falling apart, remove from oven.
And dump the roasted stuff into a pot and add in a few cups of water.
Squeeze in the juice of the lemon and using a hand blender, go to town. Belnd unit la nice creamy smooth. Now I let my soup simmer on the stover for a little longer, like 10-15 minutes, just for it to meld a little more, but really you could go for it right away, or even let it simmer for longer.
When you are ready, ladle into bowl, grab a spoon, maybe a book (soup and a book is my happy place) and eat you until your belly is happy.
Have a super awesome friday!!
-C
Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup
- 6-8 medium tomatoes
- 3-4 big red (yellow or orange work too) peppers
- 1 large onioon
- 1 head of garlic
- 1 lemon
- salt
- pepper
- olive oil.
- 2-3 cups water
Tunn oven on to 450
Core tomatoes and core and remove seeds from peppers. Cut into big chunks along with the onion and toss into a large well oiled oven safe skillet or dutch oven. Add in the cloves of garlic and season with salt and pepper. Stick into oven to roast for about 45 minutes or until everything is all soft and bubbly and good.
Once everything is roasted all the way, remove from oven and transfer the veggies to a pot (unless already in a pot). Add in the juice of the lemon, about 2 cups of water (more if you want it a bit thinner) and using a hand blender, blend until smooth and creamy. If you don't have a hand blender, use a regular one.
Place soup in pot on medium low heat and simmer for 1at least 10 minutes (if you can wait, 1/2 is good) or until ready to eat.
Serve with lots of cracked pepper and a spoon and maybe something crunchy.