Recipe: Cream of roasted tomato and red pepper soup

Cream of roasted tomato and red pepper soup

Time I updated this blog with more than just posts about my poor memory.
My very first soup was beautiful, if only because it was my own, very simple creation. I'm usually a follow the recipe kinda gal, but I had a basic concept of what a tomato soup should consist of, so just followed my instincts and added other things for flavour.

Serves 2

Ingredients
1 red pepper, deseeded
10-12 various fresh tomatoes (I used 8 plum and 3 salad)
1 small red onion, peeled but whole
3 cloves garlic, peeled but whole
2 Portobello mushrooms
Soya cream
Basil

Instructions
Place the deseeded pepper, tomato, peeled onion, garlic and mushrooms into a roasting tray,drizzle a little olive oil over and roast on 200c until soft (usually around 15-20 mins. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
Peel the peppers and tomatoes before blending all vegetables until smooth. Sieve the liquid from the mixture into a saucepan and add soya cream (I used Alpro although use whatever type suits you). stir and reheat gently.
Serve immediately and enjoy x

Note
If you wish for a little heat, add half a teaspoon of vegan red chilli paste to the soup after it has been sieved.
The mass of vegetables that won't go through the sieve are delicious warmed slightly or left cold, spread on toast, crackers, dipped with breadsticks or just inside pita pockets.

Recipe: Curry Pumpkin soup

I've downloaded dozens of apps onto my iPhone to help me to make the transition first to vegetarian and then to veganism, but after buying my [very first!] pumpkin, I was disappointed to see that very few of them had simple pumpkin recipes of things that didn't require more than a dozen ingredients. So I decided to look on an older app I'd downloaded goddess knows how long ago. Big Oven, thankfully came to my rescue!

Curry Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients

1 Kilogram Pumpkin, chopped

3 Potatoes, chopped

1 Clove Garlic

1/3 cup Red Curry Paste

400 millilitres Coconut Milk

2 cups Vegetable Stock

Yoghurt, natural

Cracked pepper, to taste

Preparation - Curry Pumpkin Soup

Cook onion and garlic in oil until soft.

Stir in curry paste and cook for 1 minute.

Add pumpkin, potatoes, coconut milk and stock.

Bring to boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

Puree in batches.

Serve with yoghurt and pepper.

(Image taken from the Big Oven site)

I admit to not being the type of person that bothers with measurements. I used a small pumkin and got maybe a quarter of what the recipe asked for. I used a handful of baby potatoes because that was all I had on hand. 1 ½ tsp of curry paste, a dash of coconut milk and maybe a mug of stock.

I didn't bother with yoghurt and I added the pepper to the soup instead of sprinkling it on top.

To go with the soup, I made flatbread with plain white flour, a little salt and water, which I didn't expect would work but did.

All in all, a very earthy and deliciously spicy soup, and I can now label pumpkin as a used ingredient.