Imagine a pile of sweet, roasted tomatoes buried in the centre of your bowl hidden beneath generous spoonfuls of mushroom soup, with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Divine!
The sweet yet acidic kick of the tomatoes are outrageous and really works with the mushroom. This was a real experiment and it worked wonders, if I may say so myself.
I found these cute tomatoes in the supermarket (BeeKist) with lots of shades of yellows, oranges and purpley-reds. They almost looked too lovely to cook but I pulled myself together and bunged them in the oven -not before drizzling with olive oil, sprinkling with sea salt and scattering fresh rosemary on top. The intention was to roast them and put them in a quiche, but I changed my mind and the idea to use them in the soup itself prevailed.
Next season I’ll have my own cherry tomatoes to harvest.
While they were roasting, I prepared the mushroom soup. I have fallen for brown mushrooms recently. They are so delicious and hold their form really well (if chunks matter to you)! Make it chunky or, just before serving, blitz it in the food processor if you prefer a creamier texture.
The secret then is to squeeze a little lemon juice on top. As there is cream in the soup, it’ll curdle if you don’t hook straight into it.
Again, due to my diminishing kitchen, this was a ‘one pot wonder’ to help ease the washing up chores afterwards! We are now down to one cold water tap for EVERYTHING. Roll on the renovations!
Mushroom & Roast Tomato Soup
Ingredients
- 2 x punnets of cherry tomatoes (approx 400g in total)
- olive oil, to drizzle
- sea salt
- sprigs of rosemary
- 500g brown mushrooms, cut into rough chunks
- 1 medium onion, finely diced
- 2 tsp minced garlic
- 2 Tspn rice oil
- 50g butter
- 3 cups vegetable stock
- handful of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
- 1 cup of cream
- salt & pepper
- 1 lemon
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC.
- Arrange cherry tomatoes in an oven-proof dish, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle liberally with sea or rock salt, and scatter fresh sprigs of rosemary. Uncovered, allow to roast for approx 40 minutes.
- Meanwhile cut brown mushrooms into small chunks and finely dice onion. Add with onion, garlic, oil and butter into a large heavy-based pot. Allow to saute for 10 minutes, stirring often with a wooden spoon. Once onion has softened, pour in vegetable stock. Allow to simmer for 30 minutes.
- 5 minutes before serving, add a handful of flat-leaf parsley and cream. Taste and add salt if required (although the vegetable stock may be salty enough). If you prefer a smooth texture, blitz the liquid in a food processor then return to the pot to reheat slightly. You may choose this, or to blitz just half the soup, or none at all if you like it chunky.
- Remove tomatoes from the oven. Spoon a generous mound of roasted tomatoes into the middle of the serving bowl. Spoon mushroom soup around and over the tomatoes. Garnish with freshly ground pepper and a squeeze of lemon. Serve with focaccia bread.
Enjoy!
