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.
