Roasted Vegetable Soup

This is a really awesome, hearty soup.  I came up with the recipe after having some of the best soup of my life at a coffee shop in Kirksville.  They called it Panzanella, but typically that is a tomato and bread salad that is popular during summer.  So I did some guessing and came up with a pretty close contender with their soup.  The recipe below makes really thick soup, so you could always thin the soup out with some vegetable stock or water.





Ingredients:

• 3 med-large carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 medium onions peeled, halved and sliced into half rings
• 1 small green bell pepper, cored and roughly chopped
• 1 small red bell pepper, cored and roughly chopped
• 1 large clove garlic, cut in half (or 2 small)
• 1 cup (8 oz) crushed tomatoes
• 1/2 cup vegetable juice (such as V8)
• 1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
• salt and pepper
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Toss the chopped vegetables and garlic clove with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Spread the veggies in a thin layer onto a cookie sheet.  Roast in the oven at 375 degrees for 25 minutes, stirring halfway through baking (rotating pans if necessary).  You want the vegetables to be nicely caramelized, but not burned.  After removing the pans from the oven, let the vegetables cool for about 5 minutes.  Using a food processor, process all the veggies with the 1/2 cup vegetable juice to a fine puree.  When the mixture is a pretty smooth consistency, transfer this to a saucepan and stir in the crushed tomatoes.  This is a good time to decide if the soup is too thick or not; if so, go ahead and add some vegetable stock or water to thin it.  Bring the soup to a boil, and let simmer for 6 to 8 minutes.  Taste test the soup for needing more salt or pepper.  Finally, stir in the basil before serving.  I think this would pair well with some crostini or grilled cheese sandwiches.  Enjoy!