GRILLED TOMATO AND RED PEPPER SOUP WITH CHEESY TOASTIES

Nope, not leaving my house tonight. No thank you, I’m fine. See you next time.

The outside world is cold and rainy and inside, there’s a pot of warmth, kindness and acceptance on the stove. I can get into my pajamas at 7’o clock at night, drink red wine and cry along with Julia Roberts while mouthing ‘'I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her’. Yup, this royal bed is being shared with Netflix and this grilled tomato and red pepper soup tonight. Just threw in some extra cheesy toasties with it, so not even Instagram can make me regret it. FOMO never tasted this good.

How warmth and happiness gets made - it's grilled in an oven.

Recipe

Ingredients

Grilled Tomato and Red Pepper Soup

A bunch fresh tomatoes - get good flavor packing ones. I used a variety of tomatoes in mine.

1 red pepper

1 cup coconut milk (or you can use cream, whatever suits you)

handful of fresh basil

4 sprigs of thyme

4 cloves of garlic

1 onion

1 tbspn butter

1 splash of balsamic vinegar

1/2 Cup of chicken stock (I used 1 block of chicken stock and dissolved it in half a cup of boiled water)

1 tbspn tomato puree

salt and pepper to taste

What I mean when I say good, flavor packing tomatoes. I found these at the farmers market.

Cheesy Toasties

Yummy bread and cheese of your choice. I used ciabatta with mature cheddar.

Drizzle of olive oil

Italian spice

Instructions

Roasting red pepper and tomatoes:

1. Slice all your tomatoes in half and cut the red pepper in strips

2. Generously sprinkle with salt and pepper

3. Arrange in an oven dish. Place your tomatoes face down.

4. Trow in your garlic and thyme

5. Roast in the oven for 30 min on 200°C. However, the lower the temperature and the longer the time makes the flavors intensify, so if you have time, you can do it for longer.

Let’s get to the pot:

1. Fry onions in a knob of butter until caramelized.

2. Stir in tomato puree and fry for a minute or so.

3. Splash in some balsamic vinegar

4. Pour your delicious roasted tomatoes and red peppers into the pot.

5. Add stock and fresh basil and allow to simmer

6. Add coconut milk and allow to simmer a little longer

7. Blend with hand blender until you get your desired texture

8. Add salt and pepper to taste.

9. 
   

10. But wait, while all the delciousness in the pot is going down, and your waiting for your soup to simmer. You can make your cheesy toasties. You now have an empty oven dish and a warm oven, so pop them in there - less dishes and more flavor.

Cheesy toasties:

1. Put your yummy bread slices in the oven dish.

2. Drizzle with olive oil.

3. Loosely sprinkle some grated cheese over the slices.

4. Sprinkle some Italian spice on top

5. Grill in the oven.

(I adapted my recipe from https://www.dontgobaconmyheart.co.uk/roasted-tomato-soup-fresh-tomatoes/ . There’s a video and all of the cool things on there. So if you need extra help. Go check it out.)