A couple of weeks ago, me and my friend Daria had a little catch up in town – we were meant to be doing LGMC errands but ended up spending most of our time having lunch…and then cake! We both had some really yummy roasted tomato and mascarpone soup for lunch, and I decided to have a look and see if I could recreate it at home because it was THAT good.

I found this recipe on the BBC Good Food website and it’s pretty close to what we had for lunch – yay! I’ll definitely be making this again.

Ingredients

1kg very ripe tomatoes
pinch golden caster sugar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
sprig of thyme and 2 fresh bay leaves, tied together
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp sundried or normal tomato purée
600ml vegetable stock
2 tbsp mascarpone cheese (or use double cream as alternative)

Method

1. Heat oven to 170C/150C fan/gas 3 – 4. Bring a pan of water to the boil and get a bowl of iced water at the ready. Cut a small slit in the bottom of each tomato then plunge into boiling water in batches for 10 secs then lift out into the iced water.

2. Drain and peel the tomatoes then halve and place on a baking tray cut side up. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and the sugar. Drizzle with the vinegar and 1 tbsp of the olive oil. Roast the tomatoes for 1hr until semi-dried and set aside.

3. Heat the remaining oil in a large saucepan and cook the onion and carrot gently for about 10 mins until very soft. Add the tied herbs and garlic and cook for a minute more.

4.Stir in the tomato purée then tip in the roasted tomatoes and any juices from the tray. Pour over the stock and season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil then turn the heat down and simmer for 10 mins.

5.Remove the tied herbs and discard. Add the mascarpone then take off the heat, blitz well with a hand blender. If you want a smoother soup then it can be sieved but this isn’t really necessary.

6. The soup can now be cooled and kept for 3 days in the fridge or frozen for up to 1 month. For a dinner party, serve the soup with a sprig of thyme and a drizzle of good quality olive oil. Enjoy with some delicious bread – you can find my tried and tested bread recipe here.

Post updated 17th February 2020.

The post Roasted tomato and mascarpone soup appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

This ‘Super Soup’ lives up to its name – it’s really healthy and tastes delicious! And it doesn’t take very long to make, which means that you could whip up a batch during the week. You can pretty much put any vegetables you like in a soup, but this seems to work well as a combination! This will make a huge pan of soup, which you can freeze in batches if you wish.

Ingredients

Olive oil
1 large onion
2 cloves of garlic
3 medium sized leeks,
2 sprigs rosemary, chopped
500g carrots
1 tin chopped tomatoes
600ml boiling water (you can always add more if you need to)
1 heaped tbsp bouillon
2 peppers
a handful of mushrooms
250g red lentils

Method

1. Finely chop the onion and garlic, and then heat the oil in a large stock pan before adding them to the pan.

2. Chop the leeks and carrots and add them to the pan once the onions have softened a little. Add the tomatoes, water and bouillon and stir well. Leave to simmer for a few minutes.

3. Next, chop the peppers and mushrooms. Add to the pan with the lentils, stir well and season (I don’t add extra salt here because the bouillon is quite salty, but do this to your own taste).

4. Put the lid on and leave to simmer away until the carrots and lentils are cooked. Use a hand blender to blend to your preferred consistency.

5. Enjoy with some crusty bread or oatcakes

The post Super Soup appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.