Recipes › Sweet Pepper › Roasted Sweet Pepper and Tomato Soup
Roasted Sweet Pepper and Tomato Soup
Six sweet peppers and a tray of tomatoes go into a hot oven until blistered and caramelised, then get blitzed into a silky, deeply flavoured soup that tastes like the very best of summer. A swirl of crème fraîche and some crusty bread are all you need. This is the soup you make when the pepper glut hits in August and you want something that actually does it justice.
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Ingredients
- 6 sweet peppers, halved, deseeded
- 500 g ripe tomatoes, halvedor use a 400g tin of chopped tomatoes if out of season
- 2 red onion, cut into wedges
- 5 garlic cloves, unpeeled
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 700 ml vegetable stock, hot
- 100 g crème fraîcheuse coconut cream and omit dairy tag for a vegan version
- 1 celery stalk, roughly chopped
- 1 tsp flaky sea salt
- 1 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
- 15 g fresh basil leaves (optional)
Contains: celery, milk.
Method
- Heat your oven to 200°C fan. Arrange the halved sweet peppers, tomatoes, red onion wedges and celery on a large roasting tray. Tuck the unpeeled garlic cloves in amongst the vegetables. Drizzle over the olive oil, scatter over the smoked paprika and season generously with salt and pepper. Toss everything together with your hands.About 5 min
- Roast for 40 minutes until the peppers are well-charred at the edges, the tomatoes have collapsed and everything looks deeply caramelised. Do not rush this step — the colour is where the flavour comes from.About 40 min
- Remove the tray from the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes. Squeeze the garlic cloves out of their skins and discard the papery skins. Transfer everything from the tray, including all the roasting juices, into a large saucepan.About 5 min
- Pour in the hot vegetable stock and use a stick blender to blitz the soup until completely smooth. Alternatively, transfer in batches to a standing blender. If the soup seems too thick, add a splash more stock until you reach your preferred consistency.About 5 min
- Place the saucepan over a medium heat and bring the soup back to a gentle simmer. Stir in 75g of the crème fraîche and taste for seasoning, adding more salt and pepper as needed.About 3 min
- Ladle into bowls and finish each with a swirl of the remaining crème fraîche and a few basil leaves if using.
Tips
- Red and orange peppers give the sweetest, richest flavour here. Yellow will also work well. Green peppers are too bitter for this soup.
- If your peppers are particularly large, char them directly over a gas flame for a few minutes before roasting — it adds a genuine smokiness that smoked paprika alone cannot replicate.
- The soup keeps its bright colour better if you blitz it immediately while still hot rather than leaving it to cool completely in the pan first.
Ring the changes
- For a more substantial soup, add 400g of drained cannellini beans before blending — it adds body and protein without changing the flavour.
- A teaspoon of harissa stirred in at the end makes this noticeably more interesting and pairs particularly well with yogurt instead of crème fraîche.
Keeping it
Cool completely and refrigerate for up to 4 days. Freezes extremely well for up to 3 months. Reheat gently on the hob, adding a splash of water or stock if it has thickened.
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