Roasted Tomato Soup

I love soup. I could eat soup for lunch or dinner every day.  On my last trip, I did just that in fact - lobster bisques, clam chowders, tortilla soup, French onion soup, chicken noodle - I love just about all soups!

And I love tomato soup, especially when paired with a grilled cheese.  I decided to try and make my own, so I asked Chef Brian Hirata of Na`au to give me a recipe.

He rattled off a "recipe," and the next day, I attempted to make the soup.

I took 4 tomatoes (all I had was 4!), cut them into wedges, sprinkled on salt and pepper, drizzled on olive oil, tossed them all together in a bowl, placed them on a foil-lined baking sheet, and roasted in a 400-degree Fahrenheit oven for 35 minutes. 

I then pureed the tomatoes.  Chef Brian said to strain out the seeds and skin, but I guess it depends on what you use to puree the tomatoes, because there was nothing to strain that I could see (I used a Ninja).

I then took 1/4 medium onion, diced, and let it sweat in a pot.  I then threw the onions into the puree and blended together until smooth.  This was an "extra" step that I did, so you can just skip this step and throw the pureed tomato into the pot, along with 1 cup of vegetable broth (Chef Brian said to use chicken stock, but I didn't have any).  Let simmer.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, make a roux.  I used 3 T butter + 3 T flour.  Stir every 30 seconds for about 8 minutes, until it is the consistency of wet sand.

Let the roux cool before whisking into the soup.

Despite my lack of cooking skills, the soup turned out amazing!  It was honestly one of the best soups I've had, which surprised me. 

I will definitely be making this again the next time I have tomatoes!