2009 Day Four

Happy Sunday! The sun is shining and all we can say is, What's that big firey ball in the sky?

I found this wonderful soup recipe to try this week at the Spotted Moose Cafe:

*Roasted Tomato Soup with Garlic*
Serves 4

I know that this looks like a lot of garlic, but roasting the garlic really mellows it out and gives it a wonderful flavour. This is a delicious soup, just perfect with a grilled cheese sandwich for dunking!


3 pounds plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 TBS of roasted garlic (see below)
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh rosemary or 1 1/4 teaspoons dried
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh thyme or 1 1/4 teaspoons dried
1/4 teaspoon (or more) dried crushed red pepper
6 cups chicken stock or canned low-salt broth
6 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Preheat oven to 200*C/400*F. Place the tomatoes, cut side up, on large baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and drizzle with 3 tablespoons olive oil. Roast until the tomatoes are brown and tender. This should take about an hour. Remove from the oven and cool slightly.

Transfer the tomatoes and any accumulated juices to a food processor, along with the roasted garlic. Pulse until slightly chunky. Transfer this mixture to a large pot. Add the rosemary, thyme and dried crushed red pepper, mixing together well. Add the chicken stock and bring it to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, until soup thickens slightly, about 25 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in the basil and season to taste with salt and pepper.

To Roast Garlic:

Pre-heat the oven to 200*C/400*F. Take your heads of garlic and peel them down to the cloves, leaving the heads intact and the skin on the individual cloves. Using a sharp knife, cut off 1/4 to 1/2 inch of the tops. Place each head on a double thick square of aluminium foil, large enough to wrap loosely around the head of garlic and close tightly. Drizzle each with a bit of olive oil and season liberally with some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bring the foil up to cover it completely and seal.

Place the sealed heads of garlic on a baking tray and roast them in the heated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until they feel soft when lightly pressed.

Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool enough so that you can easily handle them. Remove the cloves from inside the roasted skins using the tip of a sharp knife, or the tines of a fork. You can also squeeze them out.

You now have roasted garlic just ready to use in things like soups, mashed potatoes, spread over warm and toasted french bread, mashed and mixed into sour cream as a topping for baked potatoes, etc. You can freeze it in small containers for long term use as well.

I found this at a blog titled: A Year From Oak Cottage She has a cute Etsy shop too.

3:02 - We just finished watching the movie The Golden Compass. What a fantastic movie! A cliffhanger with no sequel in sight. I now have to buy all the books in the series so I can find out what happens next.