A hot bowl of soup is warming and cheering in this cold weather.

Sangita Agrawal roasts the vegetables for her simple Red Pepper and Tomato Soup. It's a soup of many flavours and is naturally thickened, without heavy cream.

Healthy, warm, velvety and yummy, it's a must try.

Sangita's recipes are vegetarian/vegan, lightly spiced and lightly cooked.

Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 400 gm tomatoes, halved
• 2 medium red capsicums or bell peppers, halved, cored and deseeded
• 6-8 pods garlic, peeled
• 2 medium onions, unpeeled, halved
• 2 cups vegetable stock (please see the note below)
• 1 tsp paprika
• ½ tsp chilly flakes
• Basil leaves, torn
• Salt to taste, about 2 tsp
• Water

For the garnish

• Few basil leaves
• 1 cup crisp croutons made from regular sliced bread or crusty sourdough bread

Method

• Preheat an oven to 220°C.
• Place the cut tomatoes, capsicums, onions and garlic on a foil-lined baking sheet.
  Drizzle a tbsp of oil and using your hands, rub the oil lightly onto the vegetables.
  Roast the veggies in the oven for 30-35 minutes until the skin of the bell pepper is charred.
• Take out from the oven and keep aside until cool enough to handle.
  Peel the onion, capsicum and tomato
  Transfer all the roasted veggies into a blender.
  Add the basil leaves.
  Blend until smooth without adding water.
• Transfer the blended mixture into a saucepan and warm over medium heat in the balance olive oil. 
  Add the vegetable stock.
  Add the salt, paprika, chilly flakes and bring to a boil.
  Add water if required to get a thick soup-like consistency.
• Take off heat and serve warm with crisp bread croutons and garnished with basil leaves.

Sangita's Note: To make the bread croutons, place the bread cubes on a lined-baking tray.

Drizzle some olive oil or butter on the cubes and bake till crisp.

You can also saute the bread cubes in a pan until crisp and golden.

If you would like the soup to be thicker, let it simmer on the stove for a few minutes till it thickens.

For a thinner consistency, add a few additional tbsp broth.

Food Editor's Note: Liquid broth is available in some gourmet food stores. Or substitute the vegetable broth by combining 1 vegetable soup cube or 1 vegetable broth/bouillon cube or 1 tsp vegetable broth/bouillon powder with 2 cups boiling water.

Or substitute the vegetable broth by combining 1 chicken soup cube or 1 chicken broth/bouillon cube or 1 tsp chicken broth/bouillon powder with 2 cups boiling water.

Or make vegetable broth from scratch by boiling 4-5 cups water with 1-2 large roughly chopped carrots, 3 stalks roughly chopped celery with leaves, 2 medium onions chopped in chunks, 5-6 whole black peppercorns, 2 tsp salt, 4 tbsp chopped parsley with stems, 2 laung or cloves, 5 pods garlic, 2 tej patta or bay leaves till vegetables are tender and the water is steeped with the flavour of the vegetables and spices.
Strain and use 2 cups for the recipe.

Meat lovers might like to add 1 whole chicken along with the vegetables and spices while making the broth.

For Jain Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup, skip the onions and garlic, and roast a large peeled carrot along with capsicum. Add a stalk of celery with leaves while grinding the vegetables.

Sangita Agrawal lives in Mumbai and publishes the food blog Bliss of Cooking.

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