Saturday 5 May 2012

Scottish Roasted Love Apple and Wine Soup


Now before you dismiss this as being some obscure ingredient which you'll never be find - don't worry! Love apple is a traditional name for tomato, although nobody seems sure why. There are a lot of theories on the internet but none of them have any credible source so I assume they're just people writing stuff. This gorgeous and rich love apple soup is roasted for extra rich heartiness, perfect with crusty bread for a warming Autumn meal.

May on Gormandize with A-dizzle and K-bobo is all about Scottish Food. I'm featuring the cuisine of a different country (in a vegan form!) every month. So far we've done Croatia, Chad, Bosnia and Iran. All were delicious and you should check out all the recipes in the archive. This month a reader has suggested that we do Scotland - which was posed as quite a challenge since Scottish cuisine is famed for its meatiness! I was pleasantly surprised to discover several non meat dishes (not a lot, but some!) and lots of delicious desserts! So it may be more a month of sweets than savouries this time!

This soup also rather neatly ties into the next Holiday Recipe Club. The theme ingredients for the Cince de Mayo hop (something which I know very little about) are dulce de leche, chorizos and tomato. That obviously doesn't leave me much choice- so tomatoes it is!


Ingredients
2 kg tomatoes
Olive oil
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 celery stick, diced
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 litre vegetable stock (or use a vegetable based beef stock for a richer flavour)
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup red wine

To Make
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Cut the tomatoes in half and place on a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and roast for 20 minutes.
3. Put the vegetable stock, onion, garlic, carrot, celery and tomato paste in a soup pot. Simmer for 15 minutes. Add the wine and simmer for a further 10 minutes. Remove the bay leaves.
4. Add the roasted tomatoes and any juices left on the tray.
5. Blend the soup until very smooth and press through a strainer. Use a spoon to press all the liquid out of it and you should only be left with 1-2 tablespoons of thick paste at the end (mostly tomato skin and seeds), you can discard this.
6. Return to the pot and reheat gently. Serve with liberal cracked pepper and some crusty bread.



8 comments:

  1. Your soup looks wonderful! Tomato soup is a family favorite!!! I could go for a nice bowl right now!!

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  2. Cool, I learned something new today. I'll have to try stumping my friends by calling them "love apples." :) Your soup looks so yummy!

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  3. I "love" that tomatoes are called love apples! Great name, and great looking soup!

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  4. I am definitely calling tomatoes love apples from now on. Your soup looks gorgeous . Lovely post1

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  5. I am just laughing that you posted a Scottish dish for Cinco de Mayo! Very inventive! :) (Love me some tomato soup!)

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  6. Yum! I love tomato soup! I have heard of the love apple thing before but I don't think I ever heard a real reason why haha. I am glad you were able to join us for cinco de mayo!

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  7. I love the name of this soup. I had forgotten that tomatoes are called love apples. Gorgeous soup!

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  8. Love apples...sounds pretty sexy to me! I almost thought you were off your rocker when posting this for HRC, but then I read on and it all made sense, clever!

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