Today I have the first of the delicious guest posts which my awesome blogging friends were kind enough to contribute! This one comes from Heather at The Capers of the Kitchen Crusader - if you haven't checked out her blog yet then you should jump over and have a browse, she comes up with some seriously awesome and inventive ideas! Thanks Heather for contributing this soup recipe!
Roasted Tomato, Chickpea and Vodka Soup
Yeah, that's right, it's a soup with vodka in it. Look, in
case that freaks you out, it's not exactly compulsory vodka, but it does
enhance the flavours of the dish. Vodka is often used with tomatoes in dishes,
it marries well with the fresh zestiness and adds an interesting depth of
“savoury-ness.” I first discovered the wonder that is vodkas and tomatoes not,
as you may think, in a Bloody Mary, but rather in Rachel Grisewood's cookbook Manna
from Heaven. That cookbook is full of the kinds of cooking I adore, unusual
flavour combinations that teach a cook a lot about how flavours work and how to
think about them differently. Grisewald's “Absolut Tomatoes” recipe is still
one of my Summer dinner party favourites, it takes little effort and not much
vodka, leaving plenty for cocktails with dinner.
During Summer tomatoes are abundant at my local farmer's
market, so much so that I purchased a 10kg box of tomatoes for $10. This recipe
is designed for tomato season, for when we can get tomatoes at great prices and
in great quantities. It might seem a little mean, then, that I'm posting this
recipe at the start of Winter, when tomato season is quite far off and soups
are staple fare... but put this baby away in your memory banks. I promise come
next tomato season, you'll be thanking me.
Serves 4 (depending on serving sizes, of course)
Ingredients
2 kg tomatoes, washed and halved (no need to remove the
tops/core)
2 tbsp olive oil
4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 tbsp sugar
salt and pepper
2 tbsp vodka
1 small bunch of well washed and roughly chopped silverbeet
or English spinach
1 400g can of chickpeas, drained (or 1 cup of dried
chickpeas, rehydrated)
parsley or some “poor man's parmesan*” to serve
*poor man's parmesan is just bread, crumbed roughly, fried
in a pan with some olive oil and salt until is crispy and crunchy and golden
brown. If you have never tried this, you need to remedy the situation... plus
it's the kind of vegan fare I love, the kind that ANYONE, vegan or not can
enjoy and drool over. It's also great with pasta.
Method:
1)Preheat oven to 180C.
2)Place the halved tomatoes in a large
baking dish, scatter with garlic. Drizzle the olive oil over the top, sprinkle
with sugar and salt.
3)Toss to coat the tomatoes in oil.
4)Bake the tomatoes for 1 and a half
to 2 hours, they should be cooked through and browning on the edges.
5)Blitz the tomatoes, their juices and
the garlic in a blender or food processor with the vodka, silverbeet/spinach
and half of the chickpeas. This will probably need to happen in batches. Blend
until the soup reaches your desired consistency.
6)Reheat the soup in a pot on the
stove and add the remaining chickpeas while this occurs.
7)Serve hot, topped with the parsley
or poor man's parmesan (or both). Some toasted crusty garlic bread would also
be lovely with it.
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