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Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup with Basil
Everything roasts on one tray until the edges blacken, and that char is the flavor you cannot get from a pot.
- Prep
- 15 minutes
- Cook
- 45 minutes
- Total
- 1 hour
- Yield
- 6 servings
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Tomato soup made entirely on the stovetop has a ceiling. Simmering concentrates, but it cannot brown, and browning is where the deep savory notes live — the ones that make a bowl of tomato soup taste roasted rather than merely reduced. In a pot the ingredients never get above the boiling point of their own liquid, so those reactions simply never happen.
So the peppers, tomatoes, onion and whole garlic cloves go onto a tray at 425°F until the pepper skins blister and the tomato edges blacken in patches. Those dark patches look like a mistake and are in fact the point; blended in, they read as smoke and depth. A tablespoon of tomato paste roasted alongside adds concentration, and the garlic goes in unpeeled so it steams inside its own skin into something sweet rather than burning.
After roasting, it is a five-minute soup: everything into the blender with hot broth, then back into the pot to warm through. The basil is added raw at the end, off the heat, because basil cooked in a hot soup turns black and tastes of hay. It keeps five days refrigerated and three months frozen, and it is one of the few soups genuinely improved by being made a day ahead.
What you need
Ingredients
Measurements
Metric converts only measures that are mathematically safe. Density-dependent cups stay as Nicole wrote them.
Scale the batch
6 servings
The tray
- 3 large red bell peppers, halved and seeded
- 2 pounds ripe plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
- 1 large yellow onion, cut into 1-inch wedges
- 6 cloves garlic, unpeeled
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
To finish
- 2 1/2 cups low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth, hot
- 1 teaspoon sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika (optional)
- 1 cup fresh basil leaves, plus more to serve
- 1/4 cup heavy cream or full-fat coconut milk (optional)
How it goes
Method
Read the whole thing once before you start. Nothing here is difficult, but the timing is unforgiving at the end.
Load the tray cut-side down
Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Toss the peppers, tomatoes, onion and unpeeled garlic with the oil, salt and pepper on a large rimmed baking sheet. Turn the peppers and tomatoes cut-side down — skin-side up is what lets the skins blister and the flesh concentrate rather than weep.
Roast the tomato paste alongside
Dot the tomato paste in small blobs on a bare patch of the pan. Roasted directly on the metal it darkens and caramelizes, which is more effective than stirring it into a pot later.
Roast until things blacken
Roast 40 to 45 minutes, until the pepper skins are wrinkled and charred in patches, the tomato edges have gone dark, and the onion is soft with browned tips. Do not pull the tray early because it looks burnt — the dark patches are the smoky depth you cannot get on a stovetop.
Squeeze out the garlic
Let the tray cool 10 minutes. Squeeze the garlic cloves out of their papery skins into the blender and discard the skins. Roasted this way, inside the skin, the garlic steams to a sweet paste instead of burning bitter.
Blend hot, with the pan scrapings
Add the roasted vegetables, all the pan juices and the tomato paste to the blender with the hot broth, vinegar and smoked paprika if using. Blend 60 to 90 seconds until completely smooth. Fill the jar no more than two-thirds full and vent the lid — hot liquid expands and will otherwise force the top off.
Add basil off the heat
Pour the soup back into a pot and warm gently. Take it off the heat, stir in the cream if using, then add the cup of basil and let it sit 2 minutes before serving. Basil simmered in the soup turns black and tastes of hay; added at the end it stays green and floral.
On the bench
Equipment
3 of these change the result. The rest are conveniences, with a workaround given. Nothing here is a brand recommendation — the spec is what matters.
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Large rimmed baking sheet
The vegetables must lie in one layer to char. Crowded, they release liquid and stew, and the whole advantage over stovetop cooking is lost.
- What matters
- Half-sheet, 13x18 inches. For a doubled batch use two pans rather than stacking.
Blender
A blender's vortex gives this soup its velvet texture. An immersion blender leaves pepper skin in noticeable flecks.
- What matters
- Any countertop blender of 48 ounces or more. Work in two batches, never more than two-thirds full, with the lid vented for steam.
- Search for
- “countertop blender 64 oz” (paid link)
Silicone spatula
The caramelized juices stuck to the tray are the most concentrated flavor in the dish, and a flexible edge gets all of them into the blender.
- What matters
- Heat-resistant silicone, one-piece if possible.
Fine-mesh sieve
OptionalPassing the blended soup through a sieve removes the last of the pepper skin for a silkier result.
- What matters
- 7 to 8 inches across, fine mesh.
- If you skip it
- Blend for a full 90 seconds instead; the texture is very slightly rustic but perfectly good.
- Search for
- “fine mesh sieve 8 inch” (paid link)
The list
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Cook's notes
What we would tell a friend
- Out of season, use two 28-ounce tins of whole peeled tomatoes, drained well and roasted the same way. They will not char as readily, so give them the full 45 minutes.
- The mistake to avoid is filling the blender too full with hot soup. Steam pressure lifts the lid and the result is both dangerous and a lost dinner. Two smaller batches, lid vented.
- Jarred roasted red peppers can stand in for fresh ones — use about 12 ounces, drained, and add them to the blender rather than the tray.
- For a dairy-free version, coconut milk works well and reads as richness rather than coconut once the paprika and basil are in.
From the kitchen
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