Gettin' Ready for Fall with Roasted Tomato Soup

Oh how I love fall!!! I can't even begin to explain how excited I get at the thought that it will be here very soon. I love the foliage, the food, the weather, the holidays, and the fact that I can just drive around listening to James Taylor with a cup of coffee, and that that's actually amusing! I also get excited about making blog posts on every possible fall food that I can, which usually isn't even the tip of the iceberg of what I really want to be posting. The reason I'm making this little gem of a recipe is because, like everyone right now, my family has a TON of tomatoes to use up. This soup was originally a tomato basil soup, but I absolutely detest the taste of cooked tomatoes and basil together. Ewww. So I just omitted the basil, but if you have a ton of it that you need to use up then by all means, add it into the soup @ the stage where the canned tomatoes are added, and about 2 whole cups worth. Oh, and this soup is GREAT for freezing, so you can double or triple the recipe easily. And as a side note, I really hate taking pictures of soup. Really not fun, it's just not a pretty food unless you soup it up (haha) with extras.

Roasted Tomato Soup
yield: 10 to 12 servings

INGREDIENTS
3 lbs. ripe tomatoes, halved with seeds scooped out
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp butter
2 cups chopped onion
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 (28 oz.) can whole tomatoes
1/2 tsp dried thyme
4 cups low-sodium chicken stock

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Combine the tomato halves, 1/4 cup of olive oil, salt and pepper in a large bowl; toss well to combine. Spread the tomato halves out on a large baking sheet.  Roast the tomatoes for 45 minutes.

In a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat, combine the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil with the butter and heat until the butter is melted. Add the onions, garlic and red pepper flakes to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly soften, about 7-10 minutes. Add in the canned tomatoes, roasted tomatoes, thyme and chicken stock. Bring the mixture to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, 40 minutes.

Use an immersion blender to puree the soup until completely smooth. (Alternatively, you can use a blender or food processor. If you do, be sure to vent the steam and be very careful not to spill the hot liquid!)

SOURCE
 adapted from Annie's Eats. originally from Baking Blonde