“A first-rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting” Abraham Maslow

My birthday was fast approaching, and because we, as the adults, are not the important ones in our home anymore, I had forgotten to plan anything.

But we had been missing our friends, and were dying for a “jol”, and so the obligatory “bring and braai” was arranged.

But as luck would have it, the week before my birthday the weather was awful. This actually should not have been a surprise, as this is usually the case. 

So what was the back up plan, you ask? Humph, of course I had none, but on Thursday evening, I had my light bulb moment!

SOUP! What is better on a chilly evening than a hearty, steaming, delicious bowl of soup!

So I whipped up a pot of my Roasted tomato soup, which is so yummy, I just had to share it with you.

And the best thing about this soup is, if you are lucky enough to have any left over, you can use it as a sauce for pasta. I like to add tiny meatballs, which are my Livs favorite, just to shake things up a bit!

So without further ado, here is my recipe for delicious Roasted Tomato Soup:

(serves 10, or 8 with left over for pasta sauce, unless those 8 are really greedy!)

3 thrift packs of Rosa tomatoes, or 2 thrift packs, and an “exotic tomato selection” from woolies (this makes the soup just a little more exciting)

3 red onions peeled and quartered

1 bulb of garlic, cloves peeled

4 large carrots washed and peeled

4 large sticks of celery topped and tailed

1 small handful of fresh thyme

2 large handfuls of fresh basil

500ml fresh cream

Balsamic vinegar

Olive oil

Salt and black pepper

Preheat your oven to 180o

In a LARGE (and I mean large!) roasting tray, place all your tomatoes, quartered onions, peeled garlic cloves, carrots, celery and thyme. Splash over some olive oil, salt and pepper. 

Cover the baking tray with foil, and place in your pre heated oven. It is hard to say how long you should roast them, but once you can stick a knife through your carrots with out too much resistance, you know everything is roasted beautifully! During the roasting process, give the tray a little shake, just to make sure that nothing is sticking. Be careful when doing this, because the tomatoes, make a lot of liquid while being roasted, and as anyone knows, who has ever eaten a cheese and tomato toasted sandwich, there is nothing hotter on the face of the planet, than cooked tomato.

Once your veggies are roasted and ready and smelling delicious, you are going to need to transfer them from the baking tray, to a large soup pot. Do this slowly using a ladle, again, you need to avoid the lava like spatters of boiling tomato juice! Once this has been done, you have a slightly messy job ahead of you, you need to fish out the sticks of thyme, and remove the little leaves – sticks in the bin, delicious, tasty little leaves back into your soup! Try to get out as many of these little thyme sticks as possible. Now put your pot on the stove top, on a medium heat, add your basil, and cook until the basil starts going limp. Then get ready to blend your soup.

My favorite way to blend a soup, is with a hand held blender, and I think by now, most homes are equipped with one, if not…where have you been! So whip out your trusty blender and blend your soup until it is lovely and smooth. Once you have gotten rid of any pesky little lumps, bumps and the last of your thyme sticks, it is time to taste. Add salt and pepper, and splash in some balsamic vinegar. Now pour in your cream, and blend until the cream is mixed through. Keep tasting, adding salt, pepper and balsamic until the soup is just right!

And that’s that, a delicious home made tomato soup. I like to serve this with either fresh ciabatta bread, or bruschette with pesto. This soup is a winner with young and old.

Bon appétit