Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

You say tomato, I say tomato.

Really I don’t care how you or I say it. As long as those tomatoes are placed on a baking sheet and roasted in the oven on a really HIGH temperature until they’re bursting and a tad charred. It was a surprise when I got hit with a tomato soup craving. Because 1) I hate, HATE tomatoes, like totally despise them. 2) Since finding out I’m preggers, veggies sound like the most disgusting things ever. 3) Hot bubbly soup in the summer?

But…what-ev.

My baby body was finally craving some sort of a vegetable (why it picked my veggie arch-nemesis I have no clue), and I totally listened. But I almost burned our house down in the process.

I set the oven to 450 degrees, hoping to roast my tomatoes at a super fast speed because I was starving. After 2 minutes at this heat, smoke was coming from the oven. I panicked and opened the oven door only to choke on a big plume of smoke. My first bad mommy moment…subjecting my unborn child to second hand smoke. Wait does appliance smoke count as b-a-d smoke?

I knew the hubby knew that I knew that I had the oven on way too high when I saw him preemptively opening the back door and the windows. Pregnant brain sucks. But at least I remembered how to turn the oven down. Which is exactly what I did after freaking out that I had just inhaled 3 lungs full of over-charred tomato smoke.

The rest of this soup making process was actually a breeze. The soup came together so easy. But then I forget that the damn thing is scorching hot and, of course, like any overly hungry woman who hasn’t had a single speck of veggies in two weeks would, I dunked my huge spoon straight in to the pot…then straight in to my mouth.

There was no blowing to cool off. There was no gentle soft slurping. There was only large spoon to wide open mouth action going on. I now have a big flake of rooftop skin hanging in my mouth.

…but I killed two big bowls of this soup…so I guess the hanging skin in my mouth is just a minor set back.

Roasted Tomato Basil Soup
makes one huge pot that can serve 4 hungry pregnant women

2 cups cherry tomatoes

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt and pepper

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 yellow onion, diced

3 cups chicken broth

1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes

1 teaspoon garlic salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place cherry tomatoes on a baking sheet, pour 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil over top, along with the salt and pepper. Place baking sheet in the oven and roast tomatoes for about 20 minutes or until tomatoes are squishy and have a brown roasted color to them.

In a large pot, drizzling remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil and turn stove to a medium high heat. Add in the garlic and onion, sautéing for 4-6 minutes or until onions are translucent. Add in the roasted tomatoes, chicken broth, canned tomatoes (with the juices), garlic salt, garlic powder, black pepper, and basil. Bring soup to a boil, then turn down to a low simmer. Partially cover pot and allow to simmer for about 20 minutes, or until soup is nice and hot. With an emersion blender, blend up the soup to your desired consistency. Pour in soup bowl and serve with grilled cheese chunks.

Recipe adapted from Family Fun

Tagged as: soup, tomato