Packed with the flavour of lycopene rich tomatoes and slow roasted garlic.
Nothing beats the humble tomato.
Packed full of lycopene, its antioxidant properties and health benefits are well documented. Plus, a bowl of steaming hot tomato soup is the perfect comfort food, wouldn’t you agree? Especially when accompanied by a gorgeous, oozing, freshly made grilled cheese sandwich… Mmm… cheese….
There are no grilled cheese sandwiches in my diet at the moment (I’m on a mission to shed a few pounds) but this bowl of slow roasted tomato and garlic soup went down really, really well for my #Jumpstart15 lunch yesterday.
Jumpstart 2015 is a challenge a group of us UK food bloggers have embarked on for the month of January, and maybe longer, where we are increasing the amount of vegetables in our diet by including lower calorie vegetable loaded juices, smoothies and soups. You can read all about it in my introductory post here, and find out who else is getting involved.
I first made an adaptation of this recipe back in September when my organic veg box was filled with gorgeous ripe, ruby red tomatoes.
My first experiments were to make a slow roasted tomato sauce for use in pasta dishes, which worked really well (just use less water in the soup recipe below and you’ve got tomato sauce!).
Slow roasting tomatoes and garlic releases their gorgeous natural sweetness. The addition of some fresh thyme, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper makes for a soup better than you will ever get in a tin, and despite the fact it takes an hour to slow cook, there is very little work involved.
So, yesterday this was my lunch, sipped from a thermos on the top of a hill while the sun made a very brief appearance here in Shetland. I’d just finished up taking a few food photographs when, for the first time in what feels like forever, the sun shone through my window. It was low on the horizon, yes, but the temperature was a balmy 9 C, the kids were at school and I’d finished up what I needed to do work-wise that day.
So I poured my tomato soup into my trusty thermos, packed away a few slices of low fat ham and a piece of 50 % less fat cheddar and headed for the nearest hill. It was half past one in the afternoon when I took this photo of the sun sitting low over the horizon.
On top of the hill the wind was brisk, but the view is spectacular.
Sheltering from the wind behind the cairn I sipped my soup and ate my lunch, pondering life in the quiet solitude. I really needed that time to myself, considering I hadn’t left the house since the 27th of December except for the school run in the dark that morning. The wind helped clear away the cobwebs in my head.
I used a finely sliced spring onion as a garnish instead of parsley (I’d checked the garden and my parsley plant is well and truly gone for the season – although I did grab a big fresh handful on Christmas Day for our dinner!) or fresh basil (I didn’t have any and the local shop is pretty much empty of fresh produce) and the onion really worked well. It gave a nice texture to the soup, with little bursts of onion flavour. Plenty of freshly ground black pepper made up for the fact I didn’t actually use any vegetable bouillon in this batch of soup (I’m trying to minimize my water-retaining salt intake).
All in all – pretty fantastic. You should give it a go. Hill walk optional, but highly recommended. 😉
Slow Roasted Tomato & Garlic Soup {vegan}
Ingredients
- 750 grams fresh ripe tomatoes
- 1 bulb garlic
- 1 onion
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- handful fresh thyme leaves (or 1 tsp dried)
- Shetland sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 200 ml hot water or vegetable stock
- 1 tsp vegetable bouillion powder optional
- 1 spring onions to garnish
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 C.
- Chop the tomatoes and onion into large, even piece (quarters is fine). Place into a large bowl.
- Separate the garlic cloves but leave them unpeeled and place into the bowl.
- Drizzle over one tablespoon of vegetable oil and toss the vegetables to coat well.
- Spread the vegetables out onto a large baking tray, sprinkle with plenty of fresh thyme and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Roast for one hour, checking occasionally and turning the vegetables so they do not blacken.
- Remove the baking tray from the oven and leave the vegetables to cool.
- When cooled, the garlic will slip out of its skin. Place the roasted garlic (without the skin) and the rest of the vegetables into a blender along with the hot water and vegetable stock (if using). Blend until it reaches the desired consistency, adding more hot water if you need.
- Leave the soup as is if you don't mind tomato seeds and skin in it, alternatively, strain for a smoother soup.
Nutrition
Linking up with Extra Veg, co hosted by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Michelle over at Utterly Scrummy; The Vegetable Palette (Feel Good Veg) by Shaheen over at Allotment 2 Kitchen; Tasty Tuesdays by Honest Mum; Recipe of the Week by Emily at A Mummy Too; Cooking with Herbs (using store cupboard essentials) with Karen at Lavendar & Lovage, Cook, Blog, Share by Lucy at Supergolden Bakes and Family Foodies by Vanesther at Bangers & Mash and Louisa at Eat Your Veg.
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Disclosure: this post contains an affiliate link. This is not a paid post and all opinions expressed are my own.
A Traditional Cretan Christmas Feast
This soup looks delicious!
Fab! Thanks for sharing, these look absolutely delicious!
Beautiful soup and beautiful photographs too x
This sounds delicious, very garlicy! I often slow roast tomatoes, especially in the winter when the flavour is not so good so I will try this 🙂
Looks amazing!
Lovely recipe. I would love to try and make this at home, sometime through autumn to keep warm. I can just picture it now 🙂
Perfect for the cold months to come.
Beautiful photography and the recipe sounds great.
Your tomato soup sounds lush, I love tomatoes and with garlic and black pepper Im sure it is amazing. I have been considering purchasing a soup making machine and think this would be a perfect recipe.
Not been too well of late and trying to cram as much veg into my diet as possible and really had a hankering for tomato soup, will definitely be trying this the garlic should help too. Looks and sounds great, ty.
you just made me hungry, its looks fantastic, I am going to the shop to buy ingredients 🙂
You really cannot beat a bowl of homemade tommie soup! When I grew a ridiculous quantity of my own a couple of seasons ago my freezer was all full up of a very similar slow roasted tommie soup and it was mindblowingly delicious. And what a view to sup it in, lucky lucky you living in such a stunning corner of the world. Thanks for linking up to Family Foodies.
What a lovely, tasty, easy soup. Many thanks
Happy New Year Elizabeth, Thank you so much for sharing this recipe with Vegetable Palette. I haven’t had soup this year, but the colours of this one is so inviting and stunning to boot. The round up should be up tomorrow.
Sounds heavenly on a cold day like today.
Beautiful photos of Shetland and a beautiful soup Elizabeth. thank you for sending to #ExtraVeg
Sounds heavenly.
Thanks! Another one for my soup favourites list! You are awesome 😉
oh this looks lovely, i would definitely find myself making this in budles and devouring it in late evenings
Looks delicious and comforting 🙂 #recipeoftheweek
Nothing beats tomato soup in the winter months.. can’t wait to give this a try!
I’m a huge tomato lover! This looks delicious!
Am going to try this recipe as part of my January detox x
Have made tomato soup before, but not using this slow roasted method. Will definitely give it a go, although it won’t be eaten in such a stunning setting!
On the soup theme: recently came across Sweet Potato & Roasted Red Pepper Soup. A winter warmer. Responds well to added curry spices e.g. coriander, cumin, fennel seeds. Go experiment.
will be trying this over the weekend, sounds yummy!
Never attempted making soup, but might actually give this a go, Looks and sounds tasty =D
I’m on the lookout for healthy lunch ideas at the moment and this looks delicious.
Beautiful soup. Amazing colour. Lovely pics (how do you manage to get such amazing images with so little light?) Sounds absolutely delicious and perfect for the winter cold. You’re walk sounds delightful too. What a beautiful place….
This soup sounds delicious I am going to give it a try one day xxx
A balmy 9 C! It was 18 here this morning and I was aghast at how chilly it was. Beautiful pictures though – I’d love a walk in the countryside right now. Lovely soup recipe too. Maybe I’ll take my soup in a flask to the beach.
What a gorgeous bowl – and thermos cup – of colour and flavour! I am dead-impressed that you hiked up a hill and had this out of doors. Beautiful pictures as proof, too! I am still on holiday in Florida so not much hot soup slurping (salads!) but I’m sure when I get home I will be heating and blending like nobody’s business. And this looks scrummy. 🙂
I had been looking forward to my beef stew for dinner all day until I saw this. I swear your photography gets more lovely each time too!
Aw thank you for your kind words! I’ve been ready to throw the towel in with blogging because of the lack of light lately – this photo was taken during a very brief interlude of light PLUS two studio lights! Beef stew sounds lovely too, by the way!
A delicious warming soup, perfect for now. Your picnic photos are stunning, such an amazing place to live. #CookBlogShare #TastyTuesdays
I can’t imagine living with such limited sunlight – but on the plus side Shetland is truly gorgeous! Definitely on the veg/healthier eating bandwagon and your soup looks amazing #CookBlogShare
I made this for a starter at my new year’s eve dinner party, gorgeous recipe and pictures lady. I added a dash of cream before I served too and everyone seemed to enjoy it! Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays x
That looks so good. I could dive in right now Elizabeth. You could have gone the whole way and added it to No Croutons Required too!
Stunning views. the soup is certainly a welcome warming reward.
Happy New Year to you Elizabeth and thank you for sharing with #VegetablePalette
This looks divine. Tomatoes can be so disappointing in winter that it makes sense to slow roast them and make this soup or sauce for a flavour of the Mediterranean!
These are beautiful pictures, and this soup sounds simply delicious x #recipeoftheweek
This soup sounds wonderful enough, but the thought of you sipping it at the top of the hill looking out over those fabulous views just has me longing to be there – light or no light. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you and your blog the very best for 2015. It sounds as though you’ve got off to a good start.
That sounds and looks like bliss!! What a wonderful place to have such a delicious sounding soup. Very jealous as I haven’t got around to lunch yet!
This looks delicious. Beautiful images
Aw thank you! 🙂
Mmm, I’m definitely going to give this recipe a try as I LOVE tomato soup 😀
Let me know what you think if you do! 🙂
I’m craving soup this January and I’ll have to try this! I love tomato soup so much but roast tomato I’m sure would make it so much more special x
Roasting really does bring out the flavour of so many vegetables. I’ve fallen in love with roast veg over the last few months!