Roasted Pepper & Tomato Soup

It's a cold, rainy day here in Germany--perfect day for soup. It would be so easy to pop open a can of a popular brand's tomato soup and serve. But as simple as the name 'Tomato Soup' sounds, according to a popular international brand, it means many, many things (and additives). Take a look!

Now look at the ingredients of this tomato soup. See the difference? Only real, whole ingredients. You could even go one step further and go completely organic on this soup. It would make it even better!

Ingredients: Roasting Stage

• 25 Roma/Plum Tomatoes, Topped (they will boil down to a reasonable amount of soup)
• 1/2 Large, White Onion, Chopped
• 1/ea Red, Green, Yellow Bell Pepper, Quartered
• Olive Oil, enough to drizzle over your vegetables before you roast them
• Kosher Salt, enough to sprinkle over the top of your vegetables
• Fresh Ground Pepper, enough to sprinkle over the top of your vegetables
• Granulated Garlic Powder, enough to sprinkle over the top of your vegetables

Method: Roasting Stage

Baby Euro Oven

1. Preheat oven broiler to about 350 degrees.
2. Cut the tops off of all tomatoes and line them up in a glass baking dish. Don't worry if you have to pack them in there, it won't matter.
3. Cut the tops off of all peppers, remove all seeds then quarter them
4. Cut onion into very beefy chunks
5. Line up all onions and peppers in a glass baking dish. If you can get them in the same dish as your  tomatoes, awesome! But you'll probably have to prepare them in a separate dish.
6. Drizzle olive oil on top of all vegetables. Follow that up with salt, pepper and garlic powder.
7. Insert into oven for an undetermined amount of time. You will leave the veggies in there until they are done. You will know they are done when the edges of some tomatoes are black, some tops are completely black, the skin of the peppers are blackened and onion tips are blackened and curled.
8. When veggies reach this doneness, remove them from the oven and immediately dump veggies and all liquids rendered into the thickest bottomed soup pot you have. Now moving on to the second set of ingredients.

This is about when I pulled mine out. Roasted, but not burnt!

Ingredients: Stovetop Stage

Everyone in the pool! This is pre pureeing.

• All ingredients from the roasting stage
• 1.5 Tablespoons of Kosher Salt/Smoked Salt (either will work, but smoked salt blasts this recipe to another level)
• 2 teaspoons of McCormack Chipotle Seasoning (if you don't have this, it's no big deal, replace with 1/2t of cayenne pepper or just move on)
• 2 Tablespoons of Garlic Powder
• 1 Tablespoon of Fresh Ground Black Pepper
• 1 teaspoon each of Thyme, Oregano, Terragon
• Juice from 1/4 Lemon
• 4 Beef Bouillon Cubes

Method: Stovetop Stage

1. In a small sauce pot boil 2 cups of water and 4 beef bouillon cubes.
2. All of your ingredients will be in the pot at this point--obliterate them. I am lucky enough to have a emulsion blender (wand blender). But if you don't have one, a food processor will work, a blender will work better. But BE CAREFUL! These ingredients are hot. They will splatter no matter what blender you use. Blend them until the mixture is completely pureed.
3. Add all seasonings into large pot with pureed vegetables. If you are sensitive to salt, hold it out and add it to taste. Same with the spicy ingredients. This is your food, make it how you like it!
4. Add juice from the 1/4 lemon (this will enhance flavor without adding more salt. Don't worry, you will not taste the lemon).
5. Slowly add the beef stock from step 1. You want the soup to be soupy, not pasty. Add stock until the soup is heartily soupy. Clear as mud? I think so.
6. Let simmer at low heat for about 30 Minutes to an hour. It's not necessary, but the flavors really meld together. 

Don't be alarmed if the color of your soup more closely resembles your mental image of carrot soup. That stereotypical color of tomato soup comes from the popular brand we talked about earlier. If you want to know why their brand is that color, look at the ingredients again. It's all chemical/processing.

Enjoy this soup with grilled cheese sandwiches or just by itself. It's awesome wither way. Enjoy!