Roasted Tomato Soup

For me, this is the very best warming snack dish in the world. If I had to choose 1 dish [not counting ice cream!] then it would be this. I know my mother made and loved it and I cannot imagine our ancestors not making it in some form. If you have never tasted the amazing flavour of deep slow roasted vine ripened tomatoes, with olive oil, along with a few carrots to help sweeten and take away the acidity, then you have not lived. Nothing else, no fancy added ingredients! Canned or even “fresh” chilled soup bears little resemblance to the real thing.  I buy the tomatoes when they are on offer in Lidl [about one weekend a month] then make the soup in large batches and freeze them in single portions in small ziplok bags.

I have chosen the photo of the tomatoes, just out of the oven, before blitzing, to show the richness and deepness of colour. The flavour is literally oozing out of the picture. And it is so easy. But you do need a food processor or liquidiser.

For each large heavy based tray, I used 13 or 14 large vine tomatoes. [a snip when they are around £1.20 or less a kg]. Cut in half and spread over the tray.

Lots of fresh ground pepper, sea salt or sea salt flakes [kosher]. I use flakes for this, making sure each half has some.

Drizzle each half with a little olive oil - I use Light and Mild Filippo Berio [lovely oil]

2 med/large carrots, chopped big and tucked in between the tomatoes. Half a large Roscoff shallot, finely chopped and sprinkled plus a small teaspoon of dried Basil, sprinkled over. You can add some garlic, but I don’t.

Place in an oven, 170 Deg C for about an hour or a little more, until running with juices and starting to just blacken on the edges. Cool a little for ten minutes.

Mix up 2 pints of good vegetable stock. I use the stock pots. [as I have mentioned before!!]

M&S concentrated liquid stock is very good for this too. For the above mentioned amount this makes the soup quite thickish [perfect] but you could add a little more liquid if you like it runnier.

Divide the tomatoes in 2 and liquidise, along with 1 pint of stock, making sure you have half the juices from the tray in each batch. Don’t leave anything on the tray and scrap the lovely roasted dark bits stuck on the tray with a little of the stock. Blitz then tip into a measuring jug to bag up. Oh! WOW.

note: Choose the ripest tomatoes and smell them first. You cannot make this with cheap salad tomatoes that have been ripened in transit off the stalks. Lidl’s vine tomatoes really are very very good and a snip on offer.