Roasted Vegetable Soup Recipe

Fall is my favorite season.  The air is crisp, the leaves are changing to warm colors, bright orange pumpkins grace front stoops, and soup makes a perfect meal. 

I wanted this vegetable soup to be filling, healthy and full of flavor.  I decided to roast the vegetables first to bring out an additional layer element by caramelizing them in their own natural sugars.  This step is essential to this soup and worth the extra time.  The roasting technique for the soup can be used on any hearty fall vegetables and not just the combination that I used below.  It was just what I had in my house at the time. 

Roasted Vegetable Soup Recipe

Serves 6-8

5 carrots

1 medium eggplant

3 tomatoes

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 can chicken stock

1/2 cup water

Salt

Pepper

Pre-heat oven to 425^o. Roughly chop the carrots, tomatoes and eggplant.  Place the vegetables on a roasting sheet and coat with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Roast the vegetables in the oven for 45 minutes.

Once the vegetables are roasted, move them into a food processor and puree.  I pulsed the vegetables a few times to leave some texture in the soup so it wouldn’t resemble baby food. 

In a large soup pot, heat up remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sauté onion and garlic.  Add in the pureed vegetables and slowly mix in the chicken stock.  Depending on the consistency you prefer in your soup, start adding a 1/2 cup of water to continue to thin out the soup.  Once the soup is at your desired thickness, serve soup topped with garlic croutons.

Tips:

1)      If you want to keep this recipe vegetarian, use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock

2)      This would also be delicious with butternut squash, turnip, celery root, etc.  Any hearty vegetable that roasts well.
3)      As I have mentioned before, I love to make larger batches of food and freeze them for later.  This is a huge time saver for those busy evenings, which provides a satisfying and healthy meal.