Deliciously Ella's Roasted Tomato & Red Pepper Soup

Sadly the rain feels like it's here to stay for a while and the summer is slipping through our fingers. The only solace I can find is that I'll be escaping the constant drizzle for a week next Tuesday when we fly off to Croatia (yay!) but in the mean time I have found myself reaching for a cosy jumper in the evenings and craving some warm soup in my belly to heat me up. Andrew and I like to make a big batch of soup in weather like this and freeze it so we have our lunches ready for our working week. It means we save a bit of cash and we don't have to worry every morning about what we're going to have but it can get a little repetitive which means it has to be extra delicious! This week I wanted something super tasty with a bit of a kick using fresh seasonal ingredients. I found this recipe on the Deliciously Ella site (her website is fantastic if you fancy something yummy but really healthy) and thought it was the perfect excuse to use some of the ripe tomatoes I had in the fridge. The recipe is incredibly simple and quick; it only took me about 45 minutes to prepare, cook and blend. The website says it makes 3 servings although I would say it's 2, I like my portions big! I tripled the ingredients so we had plenty to keep us going through the long wet week. I hope you all are staying dry and warm and have something sunny planned for the near future to keep you going. I'm optimistic we might see a little more sunshine - I'm not prepared to welcome the autumn anytime soon!! Have a lovely week x

Roasted Tomato & Red Pepper Soup

Serves 10 Ingredients – 24 plum tomatoes – 9 red peppers – 2 large handfuls of fresh basil leaves – 2 handfuls of fresh rosemary – 15 bay leaves – 2 tbsp. dried thyme – a 1/2 to 1 of a cup of water (I like mine thick so I used about a 1/2) – 8 dessert spoons of apple cider vinegar (use lime if you don’t have this) – 8 dessert spoons of tomato puree – olive oil – salt and pepper to taste Method

1. Slice the red peppers into eighths, removing the centre. Then chop the tomatoes into four or five slices. Cover the bottom of a roasting pan or baking tray in olive oil and place the tomatoes, peppers with the basil leaves, fresh rosemary, dried thyme, bay leaves, salt and a drizzle more olive oil on top. Roast at 200C for 30 minutes.
2. Once the vegetables have finished roasting put them into a liquidizer with the apple cider vinegar, tomato puree, salt & pepper, be careful not to add the bay leaves or rosemary sticks though. As the soup blends, slowly add in the water until you reach your desired consistency. Once you have reached this pour the soup straight into bowls and serve (or containers for the freezer).