Food| Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Soup

1. PREHEAT your oven to 375 degrees with two racks placed in the middle of the oven.
2. DRIZZLE a little olive oil in your baking dishes. Place tomatoes, skin side down, on one of them and peppers skin side up in the other add onions and unpeeled garlic in the dishes too. (Make sure your peppers are in the top dish.
3. BAKE for 40 minutes/ until pepper skins are  blackened.
4. STEAM and peel the peppers: Once the peppers are deeply blackened, remove them from the oven and use kitchen tongs to transfer the peppers to a bowl and cover or put them in a sealable plastic bag (add your garlic too) let the peppers steam for at least 15 minutes. Remove the cover/ open bag and let them cool until they are okay to touch. Use your fingers to peel off the charred skin and discard it. Also peel the skin off the garlic.
5. HEAT your vegetable broth on medium-high heat. toss in your garlic. Add roasted vegetables and simmer for ten minutes.
6. In a heavy-bottomed pot,heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil, then add the chopped onion, peeled  garlic cloves and some  salt. Sauté making sure to stir until the onions are softened (5minutes)
7. ADD the tomato paste, paprika, salt, cumin and cayenne pepper and stir for a minute. Add the tomatoes, peeled red peppers and vegetable stock and stir. Bring the soup to a gentle boil, then reduce heat to simmer and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
8. TORTILLAS -heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large pan o Once warmed, add the tortilla strips and a little salt. Stir to coat the strips, then arrange them in  an even layer in the pan and let them cook, stiruntil both sides are golden and crispy, about 3  minutes. Take of the heat ( there are great with guacamole too btw).
9. BLEND  transfer soup to a stand blender in batches (DON’T fill your blender over halfway, or you will get soup everywhere!), cover the lid of your blender with a thick layer of kitchen towel (so the steam doesn’t burn your hands and also so nothing escaped). Transfer puréed soup to another pot or a bowl and continue until all of the soup is blended. Or, use an immersion blender to blend the soup in the pot – I prefer a stand blender it’s safer for me to use lol I’m pretty accident prone.
10. DIVIDE soup into bowls/ freezer bags if storing for later. Top with the  crispy tortilla strips, diced avocado, chopped parsley or coriander, optional crumbled feta and a sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper to taste. Great served alone or with cheese on toast or even cheese quesadillas)!

STORAGE: This soup will keep well in the refrigerator, covered, fora few days, or freeze it in individual portions (I take soup to uni so  I tend to make 6 portions eat 3 and freeze 3).

VEGAN/GLUTEN FREE:Don’t use feta or the tortilla chips.

Adapted from Kates recipe here.