Roasted Tomato Vegetable Soup

This past Sunday was a gorgeous day! It felt like autumn blew in on a cool, crisp breeze. It brought beautiful clouds that dwarfed the fields, wisps of burning wood fires, and jacket weather.Trees are only beginning to hint about their color changes but soybeans have turned golden and will be harvested soon. This early autumn weather urges me to finish stacking my firewood. And it reminds me of all the other chores that I still need to get done around here before winter.

But autumn makes me think about fun things, too, like fresh apple cider, smokey campfires, bumpy hayrides, and soup...... this soup.

I love this soup!

When you read how to make this soup it might sound like it's complicated, but this is really a very simple recipe. Three different pans of ingredients are roasted. Then they are combined with some stock in a blender. That's it. Done!

This soup cans well, too. It maintains its flavor and consistency if you home can it. When you open up a jar of this soup it's just as fresh and tasty as the day you made it.

Here's how to prepare this soup:

1) Peel, seed, and chop 5 pounds of tomatoes. Spread them out into a shallow non-reactive pan. Add several cloves of rough chopped garlic. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil. Sprinkle with thyme, fresh ground pepper, and salt. Roast at 300 degrees for a couple of hours. This will yield about 2 quarts of roasted tomatoes, including their liquid. (Don't drain the liquid.)2) Roast, core, and peel 3 or 4 large red (or orange or yellow) peppers. Here's how I do it... I cut the flesh of the peppers into large sections that will lay flat on a baking pan. I place the pan in the oven under the broiler until they become mostly blackened. Then I remove the pan from the oven and I lay a piece of plastic wrap loosely on top of the blackened peppers. I let the peppers rest until they are cool enough to handle, then I rub the skin off of the peppers.3) Peel and roughly cut 4 cups of carrots. Peel and slice 2 cups of onions. (Optional: add a chopped jalapeno.) Combine carrots and onions (and jalapeno, if using) in a shallow baking baking pan. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle with fresh ground pepper and salt. Cover pan and roast at 350 degrees for 1-2 hours, stirring or shaking pan occasionally, until carrots and onions are soft.

4) Puree prepared and cooled ingredients and a quart of vegetable stock, in a blender. This is quite a bit of soup. I have to blend 10-12 batches of it in my standard sized blender to puree all of it. I add a bit of each ingredient (some roasted tomatoes, some roasted and peeled peppers, some roasted carrots and onions, and some vegetable stock) to each batch that I whirl in the blender. Blend ingredients well so that no chunks of vegetables remain. Pour each blended batch into a large stock pot and stir to combine all the batches.

5) Heat soup. Add a pinch of sugar, adjust seasonings to taste, and serve!If canning, fill hot jars, leaving one inch of headspace, and process in a pressure canner at the pressure that is appropriate for your altitude. (Despite the tomatoes, this is a low acid food and can not be processed in a boiling water canner.) I process it for 35 minutes at 11 pounds pressure, the amount of time recommended for the least acidic ingredients, and the pressure required for my elevation. This recipe makes 7-8 pints of soup.ROASTED TOMATO VEGETABLE SOUP

5 pounds tomatoes
several cloves garlic
2 tablespoons of olive oil
thyme
salt and pepper

3-4 red (or orange or yellow) sweet peppers

several large carrots
1-2 onions
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper

1 quart vegetable stock

more salt and pepper, if needed
a pinch of sugar

1) Peel, seed, and chop 5 pounds of tomatoes. Spread them out into a shallow non-reactive pan. Add several cloves of peeled, rough chopped garlic. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil. Sprinkle with thyme, fresh ground pepper, and salt. Roast at 300 degrees for a couple of hours. This will yield about 2 quarts of roasted tomatoes and their liquid. (Don't drain the liquid.)

2) Roast, core, and peel 3 or 4 large red (or orange or yellow) peppers.

3) Peel and roughly cut 4 cups of carrots. Peel and slice 2 cups of onions. (Optional: add a chopped jalapeno.) Combine carrots and onions (and jalapeno, if using) in a shallow baking baking pan. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle with fresh ground pepper and salt. Cover pan and roast at 350 degrees for 1-2 hours, stirring or shaking pan occasionally, until carrots and onions are soft.

4) Puree prepared and cooled ingredients and a quart of vegetable stock, in a blender. This is quite a bit of soup. I have to blend 10-12 batches of it in my standard sized blender to puree all of it. I add a bit of each ingredient (some roasted tomatoes, some roasted and peeled peppers, some roasted carrots and onions, and some vegetable stock) to each batch that I whirl in the blender. Blend ingredients well so that no chunks of vegetables remain. Pour each blended batch into a large stock pot and stir to combine all the batches.

5) Heat soup. Add a pinch of sugar, adjust seasonings to taste, and serve!