Roasted Garlic and Tomato Soup

“So Little Gold for So Much Work” – Gary, Blog Appetit Does Soup husband, when realizing there would only be two and a half servings of soup.

I like making soup. My husband likes eating soup. Any soup product that results in less than eight servings with something left over for the freezer (the frozen soup is henceforth somewhat confusingly known as “liquid gold”) is considered unfortunate.

This soup was designed to use my “use it or lose it" veggies: a bit less than a pint of tired cherry tomatoes; two very soft large tomatoes, and a beginning-to-wrinkle red bell pepper. I decided to make a roasted garlic and tomato soup and served it with grilled cheese and avocado sandwiches made in the panini grill. There were just enough veggies for soup for two with a bit left over, which Noah, the future pastry chef, slurped down.

(By the way, this soup was very easy to make, so Gary was a bit inaccurate in his assessment of the soup-to-work ratio.)

Roasted Garlic and Tomato Soup
2-3 Servings

This recipe can be easily doubled. The roasted garlic is a predominant taste, so if you are not garlic fiends like us you may want to use significantly less.

Olive oil spray or olive oil
6-8 peeled garlic cloves, whole
Pint basket (more or less) of cherry tomatoes
2 large tomatoes, sliced in half
1 red bell pepper, seeded, cored and halved
Quart of chicken or vegetable stock
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup chopped fresh basil and/or parsley

Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Spray baking tray with olive oil spray or grease lightly with oil.
Spread garlic and vegetables on the tray. Large tomatoes and pepper should be cut side down. Spray or lightly grease tops of vegetables.
Roast, stirring garlic and cherry tomatoes occasionally until tomatoes and peppers are softened and blistered and the garlic is browned, about 25 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool a bit. Put into a large pot with any juices from the baking pan, add stock and salt and pepper. Cook over a medium heat until vegetables and garlic are cooked all the way through and are very soft.
Take off the heat and puree with an immersion hand blender or in batches in a regular blender.
Add chopped herbs and reheat. Serve topped with some fresh chopped basil or perhaps a bit of chopped ripe avocado.