This is a Roasted Tomato Soup that tastes terrific even if your tomatoes aren’t at the height of ripe, seasonal perfection. So imagine how spectacular it is when they are! It’s incredibly simple to make: roast > blitz > warm > eat. I love the hint of smoky flavour in this from smoked paprika.
Bonus: Super healthy, at just 240 calories a serving.
Roasted tomato soup
Tomato soups made with fresh tomatoes always confused me because recipes encourage you to make it with ripe, sweet, summer tomatoes. But in the height of summer, hot soup is the last thing I want!
So, I don’t make tomato soup when tomatoes are in their summer prime. Instead, I make it in the shoulder season when it’s cooler, which means tomatoes are not at their utmost peak. But this is easily dealt with simply by roasting the tomatoes which coaxes out the natural sweetness and enhances the flavour.
For this soup, I also like to add a hint of smoky flavour by tossing them in smoked paprika and roasting them long enough to get a little char on them. Just makes it even more interesting – again, in case the tomatoes themselves are a little lacking!
Ingredients
Here’s what you need:
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Tomatoes – 1.5 kg / 3 lb of regular or roma tomatoes (those egg shaped ones). The more ripe, juicier and sweeter they are, the more delicious to soup will be. But as mentioned above, this soup is still great made with not-so-spectacular tomatoes (which, to be honest, is the typical tomatoes at Australian grocery stores).
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Smoked paprika – Adds lovely earthy, smoky flavour to give this soup a little je ne sais quoi even if your tomatoes are not summer-prime, and even if you don’t have basil (see below). 🙂 It’s widely available at regular grocery stores, sold alongside regular paprika. Substitute with extra fresh basil instead!
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Garlic cloves (lots!) – Five roasted whole in their skins so we can squeeze the flesh out later and blitz it into the soup. Plus another 2 garlic cloves sautéed with the onion.
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Onion – Just your regular brown onion. Sautéing that with minced garlic goes a long way to add great flavour base into tomato soup.
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Vegetable stock/broth – The liquid for the soup. Tastier than water! Use low sodium, though if you’ve only got regular salted stock, just reduce the salt listed in the ingredients 1/2 teaspoon.
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Cream (just a bit) – I only use 1/2 cup (125 ml) of cream for a touch of creamy mouthfeel. It’s not intended to make the soup creamy as such, it’s just for finishing. So, feel free to leave it out – or substitute with butter if you don’t have cream. (Note: Even with the cream, it’s still a low 240 calories per serving!)
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Basil – OPTIONAL. Don’t go and buy a whole bunch of expensive basil just for this recipe, unless you’re cooking for company! The smoked paprika plus char on the tomatoes is designed to give this soup a touch of extra flavour so it’s still great even if you don’t have basil, and is the reason I only use a bit. Though – if you’ve got basil, feel free to add a lot more!
How to make roasted tomato soup
Don’t be afraid to take the tomatoes a little further than your ordinarily would, to get a little charring on them for free smoky flavour.
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Place halved tomatoes and unpeeled garlic cloves on a baking tray. Toss with olive oil, smoked paprika, salt and pepper. Arrange them cut face up.
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Roast for 40 to 45 minutes in a hot oven until the surface has little charred bits and the tomatoes are completely soft.
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Sauté the onion and garlic in a little oil until the onion is soft and translucent.
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Add the tomatoes and vegetable stock.
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Squeeze the roasted garlic flesh from the skins. The garlic flavour will be very mellowed and sweet. (It’s tempting to smear it on toast – in fact, it’s a brilliant way to use it!).
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Blitz until smooth using a stick blender. Or do this step in a food processor or blender (you need a high powered blender like a Vitamin or Blendtec to make the soup perfectly smooth).
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Simmer for 10 minutes to bring the flavours together, then stir in the cream.
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Ladle into bowls and serve with a drizzle of cream and sprinkle of fresh basil!
The soup pictured above was yesterday’s lunch and dinner. And grilled cheese was present on both occasions.
It will tick the calorie count a little higher (just a little! 😈). But the increase in delicious-factor is immeasurable.
Whether you eat this soup with a spoon or something for dunking, I hope you love it! – Nagi x
More dunking suggestions
Watch how to make it
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Smoky Roasted Tomato Soup
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Ingredients
Smoky roasted tomatoes:
- 1.5kg/ 3 lbtomatoes, halved, cut a “V” out of the top to remove the core (Note 1)
- 5garlic cloves, NOT peeled
- 2tbspolive oil
- 1 1/2tspsmoked paprika, optional (Note 2)
- 1tspcooking salt / kosher salt
- 1/4tspblack pepper
Soup:
- 1tbspolive oil
- 2garlic cloves, finely minced
- 1onion, diced
- 1 litre (4 cups)vegetable stock/broth, low sodium (try homemade!)
- 1/2tsp+white sugar, only if needed (Note 3)
- 1/2cupcream, optional, plus extra for drizzling (sub 30g/2tbsp butter, Note 4)
- 1/4cuproughly chopped fresh basil leaves, NOT CRITICAL (Note 5)
For serving (pictured):
- Grilled cheese!
Instructions
Roast tomatoes:
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Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F (200°C fan-forced).
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Toss & squidge – Place the tomatoes and unpeeled garlic cloves on a tray. Drizzle/sprinkle with the oil, paprika, salt and pepper. Toss to coat, squidging the cut face of the tomato in the oil on the tray to thoroughly coat. Arrange tomatoes cut face up.
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Roast for 40 to 45 minutes or until there is some charring on the tomatoes (see photos).
Soup:
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Sauté – Heat the oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Sauté the garlic and onion for 3 minutes or until the onion is translucent.
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Tomatoes – Remove the garlic cloves from the baking tray. Scrape all the tomatoes and juices into the pot. Squeeze garlic flesh into the pot. Add vegetable stock.
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Blitz with a stick blender until smooth (or do this in a food processor or blender).
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Simmer – Bring to a simmer then lower heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the cream.
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Ladle into bowls, drizzle with cream and garnish with basil. Dunk in grilled cheese and enjoy!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Ah, Dozer! I look forward to a time once again when I only have cute and silly stories to share about you!
Firstly though, just to assure you, he is doing very well and is completely oblivious to the flurry of activity and think-tank sessions going on around him, FOR him!
The past couple of weeks has been all about Dozer’s new food as it’s become apparent his medical condition has affected his ability to swallow. (It’s called “esophageal dysmotility”). If I don’t feed him the right sort of food, this can cause all sorts of complications, with consequences one does not want to think about.
It just seems so cruel that this would happen to the Chief Taste Tester of RecipeTin! 😭 While I’ve had moments of sadness, I am just so grateful to still have him, and that he is getting stronger every day.
And I have been relishing in the challenge to come up with Dozer-safe foods that provide him with the nutrition he needs! I was already doing this to an extent since his surgery back in early March, but now it has to be taken to another level.
I’ve been experimenting quite extensively, and also getting advice from experts. I still haven’t landed on a final set of recipes for food that is easy for him to swallow, provides all the nutrition he needs as well as being practical for me to make (there have been recipes calling for 1.5kg / 3 lb of meatballs to be made for him every day – that’s 120 meatballs daily!! 😱).
I will do anything for Dozer…..but that’s just not sustainable!
I haven’t solved the new Dozer food challenge yet. I’ve been trying all sorts of things, from sou vide meat (the moistness of the cubes of meat makes it easy to slide down his throat), to a dog friendly terrine (this is showing potential!) to porridge-like slop (I just can’t bring myself to feed this to him..)
I also position him on an incline for 30 minutes after every meal to let gravity help get the food into his stomach. (There are purpose built contraptions called “Bailey Chairs” but for a dog of Dozer’s size plus given his spine condition, it’s not suitable for him).
He’s adapted to this astonished well. He just chills out on the inclined bed until the timer goes off, then he knows he’s free!
Anyway. I’m in the thick of Dozer recipe testing right now. I will happily share my final set of recipes, if there is interest.
And as I said, he is completely oblivious to everything going on behind the scenes, all for him. And I wouldn’t have it any other way!
And as with every other Dozer update post I’ve shared since Life of Dozer changed forever that fateful day back in February – thank you from the bottom of my heart, for all the lovely caring and uplifting messages you have shared. Dozer feels very loved! – Nagi x
