Roasted Tomato Soup

I don't like soup. In fact, I actively dislike soup. It's just wrong. Why would I want to eat my food all gummy when I still have all of my teeth? It also looks weird.

The other half was feeling ill yesterday. I made him soup from a can for lunch, which he enjoyed and ate everything). But I thought I could do better than that, and toyed with the idea of making tomato soup (based on him asking if that's what we had earlier in the day). I googled a bit and checked out some recipes, and decided to wing it based on what I'd seen.

The ingredients:
4-6 large tomatoes, or a lot of little tomatoes (easier with the bigger tomatoes)
1-2 garlic gloves (use to taste, it does sweeten a lot in the roasting)
1 red pepper
1 onion (optional)
Thyme (fresh or dried) - to taste
Any other herbs you want to use (fresh or dried, I used some fresh parsley) - to taste
1tsp smoked paprika
1/2-1 cup chicken/vegetable stock
salt - to taste

The process:
Tomatoes should be halved and quartered, put on a baking tray, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt. Put the garlic gloves, still in their papery skin, also on the tray. Prick the skin of the red pepper all over with a knife/fork, and on the tray it goes. If using, slice the onion into rounds and put it on the tray too.

This all goes into the oven at 200 for about an hour. Turn the pepper about halfway. The tomatoes will concentrate down and release some juices.

After an hour, take it out of the oven and put the tomatoes and any juices in the pan into a pot. Put the pepper in a bowl and cover with clingfilm (this will allow you to easily remove the skin from the pepper so you can just use the flesh). Split the garlic clove and squeeze the roasted garlic into the pot too (be careful, it's hot!). Once you're done with that, the pepper should be ready - pull the skin off, and remove the seeds with a teaspoon. Put the pepper into the pot too (I reserved some strips to put on the top). If you have onions, put them into the pot too.

Add the stock, and let it cook for about 5 min to reduce the liquid a bit. Add some smoked paprika, thyme (fresh or dried) and any other herbs you may want to add (fresh or dried).

Get out the stick blender and puree it. You can leave it slightly chunky or go all the way smooth - whatever floats your boat. Add salt to taste. If you want it thicker, cook it down further.

When ready, spoon into bowls and garnish with the roasted pepper strips.

I served this with some toasted cheese sandwiches made with mature cheddar on wholewheat. It works really well together.