Food & Drinks

Easy recipe of the week: roasted tomato soup

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A split-screen thumbnail for a cooking video. On the left is a large bowl of red, creamy roasted tomato and pepper soup, garnished with crumbled white cheese (feta) and chopped basil. Next to the bowl is a thick piece of crusty bread covered with herbs. On the right, a blonde woman with a natural make-up look looks into the camera as she puts a spoonful of soup in her mouth, and she holds a smaller plate with the same soup. At the top left is the white text 'Weekly Recipes'.

“What are we eating today?” It’s probably the most asked question in the world. After a hectic day, running from place to place with an overflowing agenda, you really don’t feel like spending hours in the kitchen. We understand that. You want to whip up something delicious that isn’t just a quick bite, but doesn’t take hours either. Because while we all sometimes crave a quick meal, you also don’t want to settle for a boring, quickly made meal every day. Luckily, I have something for you! In the Easy Recipes of the Week section, we search every Monday for the fastest, easiest, and tastiest recipes that you can put on the table in no time. This week: easy peasy roasted tomato soup (with a toastie, of course)

Okay, I get it: after a long workday, you don’t feel like making soup for three hours. A soup from scratch, where you throw in all kinds of boats and vegetables that need to simmer. This soup is definitely not that. It’s ready in forty minutes. And what makes this one different from others? It has a secret ingredient: red bell pepper.

Half of the Netherlands is put off by a partner who can’t cook

The shopping list

(for 5 people)

  • 800 grams of cherry tomatoes, preferably 1/3 red, orange, and purple.
  • 2 large beef tomatoes
  • 3 red bell peppers (+/- 450 grams)
  • 2 bulbs of garlic (20 to 24 cloves)
  • 45 ml extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon Italian herbs
  • Pinch of cayenne pepper
  • Pepper and salt to taste
  • +/- 500 grams vegetable broth
  • 250 ml of cooking cream

For the toasties:

  • Mozzarella toast cheese 40+ slices (depending on how much you want)
  • Creamy Red cheddar 48+ slices (depending on how much you want)
  • Fresh chives

woman cooking

Preparation: how to make the soup

Step 1: Roasting in the oven

What’s better than that roasted flavor in the soup? You could fuss with a cast iron grill pan, but you can just roast it in the oven. First, preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Then it’s prep time. Cut the beef tomatoes and onions in half and cut the top off the garlic bulbs. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper and place all the vegetables on it with the cut side facing up: the cherry tomatoes, beef tomatoes, onions, garlic, and bell pepper. Drizzle – or rather, drown – them in olive oil. This is actually the only step that takes a little while, because now the tray with everything goes in the oven for 40-50 minutes. Check in between how it’s going and stir if necessary. The vegetables should look soft and a bit charred. And that garlic? It should be so soft that you can squeeze it out.

Step 2: Blending

In the meantime, you can do the laundry, read a book, finally start cleaning the attic, or watch the very last episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty – up to ten minutes before the end time. You can use those last moments to prepare the toasties, so you can start right away once the soup is ready. Get the cheese and (sourdough) bread out. Cut the fresh chives into small rings and you’re all set.

Then grab the blender, because we’re moving on to the next step: blending. With an oven mitt in one hand and a spoon in the other, slide all the freshly roasted vegetables into your blender. Squeeze the garlic out of its skin into the blender. Add about 500 ml of vegetable broth. Is it still too thick? Then add a bit more broth, to taste. Blend it into a silky smooth soup and in the meantime, turn on your toastie maker.

Step 3: Simmering

Now that you have soup, instead of a pot of soft vegetables, you need to simmer it a bit. Pour the mixture into a pot and add the cooking cream. Once you’ve stirred it well into the soup, let it simmer on medium heat. This is the moment when you add pepper, salt, Italian herbs, and possibly cayenne pepper.

Step 4: Toasties

Once the soup is simmering, make the toasties. Cut your bread diagonally into two pieces and top it with mozzarella and cheddar slices. Sprinkle with chives and toast in your toastie maker or the old-fashioned way in the pan with some butter.

Step 5: Topping with cream

Pour the soup into your favorite bowl and finish it off with a little cream. Swirl it through. Sprinkle some more chives on top and place the toasties next to it. This is purely aesthetic, of course, but the eye wants something too.

That’s it. This is how you put a bowl of comfort food on the table in ten minutes (minus the oven time). Or on the couch. Are you sitting comfortably with your blanket and your bowl of soup? I’m already getting excited.