Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Soup: a Homemade Recipe

This red pepper soup recipe serves four and will take about an hour in total to prepare and cook.

You need to buy the following:

4 red peppers

500g (1lb) of tomatoes
(try plum or vine tomatoes)

1 medium carrot
(washed, peeled and chopped)

1 teaspoon of olive oil

1 red onion

600ml (1 pint) of vegetable stock

Handful of fresh basil

Salt and pepper

Tomatoes by dichohecho, on Flickr

Firstly, core and de-seed your red peppers and cut them in half. Then place them skin side up on a baking sheeting under a hot grill. Roast the peppers until blackened and blistered; the more blackened the better! This will take about 10 minutes.

Whilst your red peppers are roasting, cut the tomatoes in half and place on a baking sheet skin side down. Put them under the grill and roast for about 10 minutes, until they are soft and the flesh is starting to move away from the skin. As you can see from my photo, I burnt the paper quite a bit, whoops!

When your peppers and tomatoes are done, put them to one side and leave them to cool.

Whilst the tomatoes and red peppers are cooling, peel and cut up the carrot and chop up the onion. Prepare your stock according to the instructions on the back of the packet - or use fresh stock!

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the carrot and onion and fry for 5 minutes, or until the onion looks soft. Don't let the onion burn, it will give your soup an odd gritty texture!

The peppers and tomato should be cool enough to touch now. Take the skin off the red peppers, scrape it off with a knife or with your hands - whatever is easier. They will not look pretty - as you can see!

Add the peppers to the onion and carrot, and add in the stock. Take off the tomato skins and add to the soup mixture, this is a messy business so I do this over the saucepan.

Bring to the boil and let it simmer for 20 - 25 minutes.

Take the pan off the heat and transfer to a food blender or processor. I find that it's best to do this in batches, it is less messy and easier to get a smooth blend.

Liquidize the red pepper soup until smooth and pour into a large bowl. Add the seasoning. Taste before seasoning, I find that I don't need to add salt because the stock does that for me - but what ever suits your taste.

Serve the red pepper and tomato soup into four bowls and garnish with the basil leaves. Tuck in and feel healthy!

Grated-parmesan-cheese by Island Vittles, on Flickr

1. Chilli flakes are a great addition to this soup, adding a spicy kick!

2. A teaspoon of creme fraiche per bowl adds a lovely creamy taste and texture.

3. A sprinkling of seeds - sunflower, pine nuts or pumpkin seeds add a nutritious crunch to the soup. Even nicer if you toast them first.

4. Grate a little Parmesan or Gruyere cheese on top, extremely delicious as the cheese goes all melty and stringy.

5. Make croutons out of chunky wholewheat bread. Or just dip lovely big slices of crusty bread into the soup - yum!

Baguettes by fugzu, on Flickr Creative Commons

I used an excellent website called Weight Loss Resources to work out the nutritional value for my soup. If you become a member you can have an online food diary and add your favourite recipes, which is is what I did for my recipe for red pepper and tomato soup.

Calories (kcal) - 96.6
Carbohydrate (g) - 17.4
Protein (g) - 3.3
Fat (g) - 1.8
Fibre (g) - 4.5
Fruit & Veg portions - 4.2

This is per bowl.