Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Basil Soup

Is it getting chilly outside?!? Not for me! One of my most favorite things is to make soups, and one of my most favorite soups is this tomato soup! Paired with ooey gooey grilled cheese sandwiches...ugh! It's just the best! Forwarning, you'll probably be seeing a lot more soup recipes coming up here.

The best thing about soups is that they make yo feel so good, and are often, so good for you! Especially this one which is 100% veggies and van easily be made vegetarian or even vegan! Everybody is happy.

I will forwarn you though, you will need either an immersion blender, a regular blender, or a food mill to make this recipe. So make sure you have the tools first!

Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Basil Soup

Prep: 20 mins

Cook Time: about 2 hrs

Serves 4-6people

Ingredients

-3lb Ripe Plum Tomatos

-1 28oz can peeled plum tomatos

-2 Medium Yellow Onions

-6 Garlic Cloves

-4 cups, packed basil

-10 Sprigs freash thyme in a bouquet or tied together with a string

-1 12oz can roasted red pepper, drained

-1 Qt Low Sodium Chicken Stock (Or Vegetable Stock)

-1 Tbs Fennel Seeds

-1.75oz Toasted Pine Nuts

-1 1/2 Dried Oregano

-1 tsp Dried Parsley

-1 Tbs Crushed Red Pepper Flakes (1/2 Tbs for less Spicy or you can skip)

-2 Tbs Kosher Salt

-1 Tbs Cracked Peper

-3 Tbs Olive Oil, divided

-2 Tbs Unsalted Butter

Tools:

-Large Baking Pan with sides

-6 Qt Pot or larger

-Immersion Blender or Regular Blender or Food Mill

-Small saute pan

Directions:

1) Preheat the oven at 400°F. Slice the 3 lbs of plum tomatos into quarters, removing much of the pith and seeds. Cover with 1 Tbs olive oil, 1 Tbs salt, 1/2 Tbs pepper and place on the baking pan. Cook in the oven for 45 mins.

2) Toast the pine nuts on Medium heat in a dry, non-greased saute pan, stirring frequently until mostly browned on all sides but not charred.

3) Dice onions and add the 2 Tbs olive oil and 2 Tbs butter to your pot. Add onions and cook on Medium High for 15mins or until onions start to brown. Add 1 Tbs Salt and 1/2 Tbs pepper.

4) Add garlic to onions and stir until fragrant (when you can strongly smell the garlic, roughly 30secs). Add the roasted red peppers until warmed, about 3 mins. Add 28oz can of peeled plum tomatos with the juices. Add fresh basil, thyme, red pepper flakes, oregano, parsley, fennel seeds, toasted pine nuts, and the roasted tomatos finished from the oven (adding any juice that is leftover on the pan). Add 1 Qt of chicken stock and stir.

5) Bring the soup to a boil then lower to a simmer for 40 mins.

Note: Simmer is when you see just a couple of bubbles reaching the surface of the soup, but it should not be going crazy. At this point, everything is pretty much cooked, it's just a matter of melding the flavors so you want to keep the heat lower at a simmer so the flavors are distrubuted throughout the food.

6) After 40 mins, turn off the heat. Remove the bouquet of thyme or thyme bundle! Use an immersion blender on low to grind up the soup. Make sure you never remove the blade from the soup when it is on!

If using a regular blender, blend in very very small batches! Never fill your blender more than 1/4 full of hot liquid. Be careful of all the hot steam escaping from the top! Blend for a few seconds until coarsley chopped. Repeat the process until all of the soup is coarsley blended together.

Note: It's very helpful to have an extra dish towel to cover the top of the blender when blending to protect your hand from steam or even splashes of soup that creep up the sides and leak out. Remeber, you CAN be burned from steam!

7) Serve with some ooey, gooey grilled cheese! I also like my soup with a little bit of fresh basil, sour cream, avocado, some shredded cheese and a little sriracha if I'm feeling adventurous.