Tag Archives: Spicy Tomato Soup

Roasted Tomato-Chipotle Soup with Grilled Cheese Croutons

While calendar says summer is officially over, here in Ottawa, the weather has been glorious and tomatoes are still ripening on the vine. The farmers market stalls, once I waded through the piles of pumpkins, were overflowing with plum and heirloom tomatoes this week.

I have updated a comforting childhood classic, tomato soup with grilled cheese, by giving the soup a kick of heat with chipotle peppers in adobo and turning the grilled cheese into croutons. A drizzle of basil oil makes for a very beautiful bowl of soup.

Start with roasting tomatoes, shallots and garlic in the oven. No need to peel the tomatoes or garlic. It’s easy to slip the peels off once everything is roasted. Tuck the garlic under the tomatoes to protect the papery skin from burning.

Once the veggies are roasted, tip everything into the blender and puree until smooth. This is the time to add the spice. Chipotle Peppers in Adobo sauce, are jalapeño chiles that have been dried, smoked and packed in a flavourful sauce made from tangy tomatoes and spices. They are sold in a small tin and are readily available in most supermarkets.

Each tin contains about 10-12 peppers, way more than you will need for this recipe. Here is how I store the leftovers. My heat tolerance is fairly low, so I like to remove the seeds from the peppers. Working over a bowl, gently open each pepper and, using your fingers, slide out the seeds and discard. Place deseeded peppers and sauce from the tin into a food processor. Process until smooth. Spread puree out on a parchment lined baking sheet and freeze until solid. Break puree into a few pieces and freeze in zip loc bag. It will keep in the freezer for a few months. Just break off a little piece as needed.

Here are some other ways to use up the chipotle in adobo:

The roasted veggies make quite a thick puree. Thin it out with a bit of vegetable stock and some 35% cream. As a finishing touch, I like to add a squeeze of honey and a splash of sherry wine vinegar to wake everything up.

It’s not difficult to make a mediocre grilled cheese sandwich, but for an outstanding version, follow these rules:

  • Rather than adding butter to the pan, butter the outside of each slice of bread.
  • Use a cast iron pan if you have it, for perfect browning.
  • Use medium or old cheddar for best flavour.
  • Cook on low heat and cover pan to assist in melting the cheese.

I used a serrated knife to cut my sandwiches into adorable little croutons and finished the soup off with a drizzle of basil oil.

Basil oil is simple to make. Puree basil, a bit of spinach (helps keep the green colour) and a neutral oil. Strain for a clear smooth oil. It will keep in the fridge for 2 weeks. If you don’t want to bother making the basil oil, just finish the soup with some chopped fresh basil.

Click here to print recipe for Roasted Tomato-Chipotle Soup with Grilled Cheese Croutons.

Spicy Roasted Tomato and Corn Soup

soup for 3 625F sqIt strikes me as quite ironic that while we consider the cracks and crevices in the skin of
heirloom tomatoes beautiful and even desirable, the same qualities in the skin of an aging woman are not. Yet I digress. We’re here to talk about tomatoes, not the skin of mature women. There’s enough conversation about that topic everywhere we turn these days.
in green bowl I feel as though I have eaten my weight in heirloom tomatoes this summer. I buy them every time I see them, which has been every few days over the past 6 weeks. The local supermarket near my cottage has been carrying them all summer. Heirloom tomatoes just taste better than hybrid tomatoes. There are actually a few reasons for this. Most heirloom plants produce only 2-3 tomatoes. What that means is that all the energy of the plant is concentrated into fewer tomatoes. Heirloom tomatoes have more locules, those little cavities in the tomato where the seeds are housed, than hybrid tomatoes.on a pedestalAccording to Christopher Kimball of Cook’s Illustrated, the seeds are the most flavourful part of the tomato. “It turns out the seed in [the tomato] jelly … has three times more flavor compounds called glutamates than the flesh, so when you seed the tomato… you’re actually throwing out most of the flavour.”

Mostly I have been slicing the tomatoes, sprinkling them with salt and basil and just eating them that way. Some days I get fancy and dice them up, mix with a bit of garlic, olive oil, coarse salt and basil and let them macerate for about an hour. Then I toss the tomatoes with some hot pasta and grated Parmesan cheese. sliced on wooden board 2The other morning there was a bit of nip in the air, before it rose to 30°C (86°F), and I started craving something roasted. I was over raw.

This soup was inspired by a roasted tomato and corn soup created by blogger Adrianna Adarme, over at PBS’s food blog, Fresh Taste. if you can’t find heirloom tomatoes, just substitute some large beefsteak tomatoes.
seasoning for roasting
cutting corn off the cob
adding veg stockThe spice in the soup comes from a combination of of heat sources: jalapeño, ancho chile powder and a bit of cayenne. Some cumin and smoked paprika round out the seasoning. The sweetness of the corn is a perfect complement to acidic juicy tomatoes. I pureed the soup and then strained it for an extra velvety texture. This is the perfect transitional soup to help you manage the difficult shift from summer to fall.

ladling soup 2F

Click here to print the recipe for Spicy Roasted Tomato and Corn Soup.

bowl of spicy tomato corn soup