This roasted tomato and roasted garlic soup will mark the start of a series of posts on my favorite recipes from around the web. I’ve been making this soup for years, since almost flipping past it on Rachael Ray’s show. Yep, it’s 100% Rachael Ray; I haven’t even significantly tweaked it. It’s perfect already! Check out the full recipe here.
It’s the ideal time of year to find perfectly ripe and dirt-cheap roma tomatoes. Seeing the abundance of these beauties at the store a few days prompted me to make a double batch of this ultra-healthy soup. (It freezes really well, so I like to make lots and freeze half.)
At this point, I’ve made this recipe enough times that I’ve stopped measuring things and just go with the flow. I generally use more tomatoes than called for, and more garlic (surprise surprise!). For this batch, I bought a ton of tomatoes and used as many as I could fit on two baking sheets, and five heads of garlic. I use my own homemade broth, but you could certainly use whatever store-bought veggie broth you prefer.
One tweak I like is to hold off on adding the fresh herbs (I use parsley and basil) to the tomatoes before roasting; rather, I add them to the soup just before pureeing, in order to keep the herbs tasting fresh and bright. Also, instead of pureeing in multiple messy batches in the food processor, I use an immersion blender right in the soup pot (ensuring that the soup is not hot before blending).
As an aside, I love to make mashed potatoes (or half-and-half mashed potatoes and cauliflower) to serve with this soup. It’s the ultimate comfort-food combination. I actually have gotten into the habit of putting a big scoop of mash into the bowl before covering it with soup and eating them together…. I know, it sounds weird, but if you try it I bet you’ll like it!
This soup (with or without mash) is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. Some people may be surprised by a tomato soup without a creamy component, but they are quickly convinced. It’s a fantastic, easy, and healthy recipe to add to your repertoire. Thanks Rachael Ray!
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