I appreciate that it’s summer here in Australia so soup is probably not the first thing you’re thinking of for dinner... so this one is for my English friends who are in the depths of winter (or any weirdos like me that would still happily eat soup on a 30-degree day).
In my opinion, the key to a super hearty and flavoursome soup is the stock/broth you use as your base.
Regardless of whether you use vegetable or chicken if you aren’t using homemade stock (a great way of using up fridge scraps and bones) make sure you a buy a good one. By good, I mean one that packs a punch flavour-wise (high proportion of ingredients to water) and doesn’t contain a whole host of unnecessary ingredients. Many supermarket brand stocks are full of sugar, thickeners, additives, MSG, palm oil and are crazy high in salt (particularly stock cubes).
Also, have you not yet already discovered, roasting the veg before adding them to the soup is game-changing. Don’t skip this step. It really does make a difference!
I hope you enjoyed this soup as much as we did. Obviously, it is best served with crusty bread and butter.
🛒 Ingredients
1 brown onion, finely diced
3-4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 large red capsicum (or peppers if your English!), chopped in half
2 large carrots, peeled
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp dried coriander
1/4 cup tomato passata
1L chicken or vegetable stock
200g cherry tomatoes
6 sun-dried toms
1/2 tsp chilli flakes (optional)
Fresh basil (to serve)
Yoghurt or cream to serve (optional)
👩🍳 Method
1. Preheat your oven to 180 and line a large baking tray.
2. Add the halved capsicum and whole carrots to the lined baking tray. Drizzle with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and season with a little salt and pepper. Put into the oven and roast for 45 minutes (or until vegetables are nicely roasted)
3.Once the capsicum and carrot are roasted remove from the oven and set aside.
4. In a deep saucepan add 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, the diced onion and garlic. Turn the heat to medium and cook until the onion and garlic have softened. Be careful not to burn the garlic.
5. Add in the dried herbs (oregano, thyme, cumin and coriander) and stir through the onion mix.
6. Add in the roasted stock/broth, cherry tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, tomato passata and chilli flakes. Turn up the heat and bring to the boil.
7. Add the roasted capsicum and carrots and then turn the heat back down to a low-medium. Let the roast vegetables simmer in the soup mix for 10 minutes.
8. Remove the pan from the heat and blitz the soup using a soup stick/blender. Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with fresh basil, yoghurt or cream and an extra grind of pepper.