Who’s ready to hunker down with a cozy blanket and a warm bowl of soup? Think roasted red bell peppers with fresh tomatoes from the garden combined with sweet onions and garlic and turned into the most luxurious soup. Top it with fresh burrata and a big dollop of homemade pesto and you may think you have just died and gone to soup heaven.
Roasted red pepper tomato basil soup may be just the thing I need to release my strong grip on summer. Cuz I’m still holding on tight. And so are my tomato plants.
The tomatoes in my garden have gone into full blown panic mode. The air has suddenly shifted to cooler temperatures and night has crept in like a silent daylight thief making the days shorter and causing both myself and my tomatoes to feel somewhat resistant to the inevitable changes of the season. My tomatoes have just realized its now or never if they are going to pursue their full potential. And as for myself, I’m sitting with a giant bucket full of tomatoes wondering how in the world we’re going to make use of this bounty before they spoil.
Cue roasted red pepper tomato basil soup.
Soups are the signature of autumn. And a way to hold on to the sweet flavors of summer. This roasted red pepper tomato basil soup is no exception.
It’s perfect for meal prepping, freezing for later, eating with grilled cheese sandwiches, and awesome at taking care of the rapidly overflowing abundance of tomatoes in the garden. Like most homemade soups, this tomato soup will win any match-up against it’s store bought counterpart with it’s big, bold flavor. Any day. Any time. We’re getting competitive. Watch out.
It also comes together about as quickly as it would take to pull on your shoes, find your keys, and make a round trip visit to the grocery store to buy the store bought stuff. Be a diva and make your own soup.
You ready to get your soup game on?! LET’S.DO.THIS.
Grab a baking sheet and load it up with halved tomatoes and a couple halved and seeded red bell peppers, quartered sweet onions and a handful of garlic cloves (don’t peel them). Give it all a good drizzle of olive oil and a healthy sprinkling of salt and pepper. Then broil for 20 minutes or until they get that nice blackened, shrivel-ly skin on the outside. Sorry for saying shrivel-ly. Ugh.
While you wait for everything to get roasty, give thanks for your tomatoes. They contain lycopene. This just means that they help with our own shrivel-ly skin. (Sorry for saying shrrrivellly. Ew.)
Then pull the charred skins off. This is starting to sound like a bad Hannibal movie.
Process everything in your favorite food processor or blender with a can of tomato paste (this adds a little more depth of flavor) and a little heavy cream (this adds a little more dreaminess) until it’s smooth and ready to be slurped. If the soup has cooled off too much during the pureeing process just pour it into a big pot and warm it up on the stove. This will allow all of those tasty flavors to deepen a little more as well.
But whatever you do, DO NOT skip out on topping your tomato soup with some burrata and a healthy dollop of fresh pesto. Okay, you can skip the burrata if you must but the pesto is what takes it from a good soup to next level amazingly tasty soup. DO NOT SKIP THE PESTO. Pinky promise me.
And if you’ve never made fresh pesto, now is your time darling. Here’s the pesto recipe. You can make it faster than the time is takes for your tomatoes and peppers to roast, which is pretty fast. Trust me on this one.
Alright, fall time vibes. I guess I’m starting to warm up to you.
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Roasted Red Pepper Tomato Basil Soup
Prep Time: 15 minutes- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
Yield: Serves 6
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Pin RecipeDescription
Tasty roasted red pepper tomato basil soup made with simple ingredients. A perfect side with sandwiches, salads, and more!
Ingredients
- 2 large red bell peppers, halved and seeded
- 2 medium sweet onions, quartered and outer peel removed
- approximately 9 medium sized tomatoes, cored and halved (use enough to fill up the rest of your baking sheet after you’ve placed your peppers and onions on it)
- 10 garlic cloves, left unpeeled but slice off the bottom of each clove exposing the garlic clove inside
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- fresh pesto
- burrata cheese
Instructions
- Preheat broiler (550°F).
- Place halved red peppers (cut side down), onions, halved tomatoes (cut side down), and garlic cloves on a baking sheet. Drizzle everything with olive oil and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Place in oven to broil for 20 minutes.
- Remove baking sheet from boiler and wrap the red peppers in foil to allowing them to steam for about 5 minutes.
- In the meantime, remove outer skin from the tomatoes. They should just slip right off. Also remove the outer layer of charred skin from the onions and the peels from garlic cloves. The garlic cloves should just push right out of the peel since we sliced the bottom of the clove off before roasting.
- Once the peppers have steamed, unwrap them from the foil and when they are cool to touch remove the charred outer skin. If some of the skin can’t be easily removed don’t worry about it. A little bit of the skin left on will be fine.
- Transfer the roasted peppers, onions, tomatoes, garlic, and juices from the baking sheet to a blender or food processor. Add the heavy cream and tomato paste. Puree until smooth. You may need to do this in batches. Or as an alternative, place everything in a large pot and use an immersion blender to puree.
- Once all the ingredients are pureed, place in a large pot and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat on the stove. Allow soup to simmer for about 10 minutes giving time for the flavors to meld and deepen.
- To serve, ladle the soup among bowls and top with fresh burrata cheese, a dollop of pesto (don’t skip the pesto!), and fresh ground pepper.
- Be amazed at your soup making skills.
Notes
- This soup makes for great meal prep! Just make a big batch and place in the freezer until ready to eat.
- Other soup topping suggestions: fresh dill, fresh grated parmesan cheese, crumbled feta cheese, hemp seeds, gluten free croutons, fresh sliced cherry tomatoes, nutritional yeast (for a dairy-free “cheese” option).
- Dairy free version: I also tested two versions of this soup by replacing the heavy cream with almond milk and full fat coconut milk. I personally preferred the taste of the coconut milk over the almond milk. Whichever route you decide to try just keep in mind that either choice will change the flavor profile of this soup in comparison to using heavy cream. You’ll also need to make a dairy free pesto which you can do by just omitting the cheese in the recipe I provided or by using nutritional yeast in place of the parmesan and pecorino. You may have to adjust the proportions of the pesto ingredients to get the right consistency and taste to your liking.
Don’t forget to make good on your pinky promise and share pics of your roasted red pepper tomato basil soup topped with burrata and pesto (repeat after me –> don’t.skip.the.pesto) by tagging them @passmesometasty on Instagram. I can’t wait to see!
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