Good morning! Can you believe it’s already Thursday? I feel like this week has gone by fast. Yesterday was a fantastic day. In the morning and early afternoon it was sunny and got up to 65 degrees F! I went out on my lunch hour to do some errands and soak up the sun. I drove around with my sunroof WIDE open.
But then sometime between when I came back from lunch and when I left for the day it started raining. I had to walk out to my car in the rain. Honestly though I didn’t mind. It was still warm and the rain felt refreshing. Then later in the evening I heard it thundering in the distance. The first spring thunderstorm!
When I got home from work I went on a cleaning rampage. Whenever that happens I just go with it. You never know when the mood is going to strike again. It felt so good to get the clutter sorted and put away (or thrown away), floors swept, tables dusted and a load of laundry done.
Since it was rainy and a bit dreary, I decided soup sounded good for dinner. I slacked on my meal plan this week so I did not have anything planned for last night. Whenever that happens it’s a good time to raid the freezer.
In the freezer I had two containers of roasted roma tomatoes left over not from last year’s garden, but my first garden in 2008! Those tomatoes had been in the freezer for a year and a half. I decided they had been in there long enough and it was time to do something with them. I also had a bag of “basil cubes”, which is just basil frozen into ice cubes. As it’s been getting warmer I’ve been more conscious about eating out of my freezer. I need to get all of last year’s veggies cleared out and eaten before the 2010 veggies start arriving.
At first I was going to make “clean out the freezer” veggie soup, which is basically just making vegetable soup out of all the odds and ends left in the freezer and the pantry. But in the middle I changed my mind and decided to focus on the roasted tomatoes.
Roasted Tomato Soup
Adapted from this recipe on AllRecipes.com
2 pounds roma tomatoes, halved
3 tbsp olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups vegetable broth or water and vegetable bouillon
Basil – fresh, dried or frozen, whatever you have on hand, to taste
1/2 tbsp balsalmic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place tomato halves on a baking sheet, lined with foil if you like. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast in preheated oven for 1 hour.
Note: I had already roasted the tomatoes and then frozen them. So I just defrosted them a little in the microwave when I got home, and then threw them in the pot of broth to heat up.
In a pot heat vegetable broth and garlic. Add tomatoes, vinegar and basil. Simmer for awhile until everything is good and hot. With an immersion blender, puree soup in the pot until smooth. Enjoy!!!!
With the spring rain outside and the smell of garden tomatoes in my kitchen, I was in heaven. The picture doesn’t do it justice.
Unless you live in a warmer climate or have a stockpile of tomatoes in your freezer, now is not really the time to make this recipe since tomatoes aren’t in season. But this summer when tomatoes are abundant, roast some and stick them in your freezer. Then you can make this soup in the winter and be in heaven yourself! Heck I’ve made this in the summer before even when it was hot outside. It’s still good!
Everything Is Homemade 