Home Made Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup

Lately, since it has gotten colder, I've been craving soup a lot. It also helps that my parents got me an awesome new Thermos to bring to school, so I can actually bring soups with me. Anyways last night I decided to make a soup I've always seen as a comfort food; tomato soup. I thought of buying some for myself, but then realised how much healthier and how much less sodium and nastiness would be in my soup if I made it myself. So I decided to share my recipe with you.

Ingredients:

• 900 ml- 1L of stock (I normally make my own chicken stock, but I didn't have any on hand so I bought the Campbell's Chicken broth with no salt added, I used the whole tetra pack)
• 5 large tomatoes
• 4 large red peppers
• 1 medium sweet onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 1/2 tsp of thyme
• 3/4 tsp of cayenne pepper (optional if you want spice)
• 1 1/2 tsp of paprika
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Directions

1. Set a pot of water to boil, when the water is boiling, put your tomatoes in the water, let them sit in there for about 2 minutes and carefully take them out and put them in your sink and run over them with cool water.
2. next peel the skin (which should come off easily) from the tomatoes, and cut them into quarters and remove all the seeds. put them to the side
3. next cut your peppers into quarters, remove the seeds and pith and place them on a baking sheet lined with tin foil. place this baking sheet in the oven under the broiler, and let them broil for around 15 minutes, or until the skin starts to turn black
4.  when the skin looks blackened enough, take the peppers out of the oven, and place them into a paper bag and place the paper bag into a plastic container with a lid. let sit for around 5-10 minutes
5. once cooled down remove the skin from the peppers and chop the peppers into rough pieces
6. chop your garlic and onion roughly. 
7. in your cooking pot, heat up your olive oil and start cooking your garlic and onion. you want to see the onion start turning translucent
8. add in your thyme and start cooking that, don't let it burn, stir it around for 10-20 seconds. 
9. pour in all your stock and start warming the soup up. 
10. once the liquid is warm, add the tomatoes and chopped roasted pepper into the pot. 
11. let your soup cook for 5 minutes, then add your cayenne (optional) and paprika. 
12. let this cook and combine for 3-5 minutes
13. using a regular or emersion blender, blend up your soup. you want it to be nice and smooth. 
14. after this your soup is ready, you can serve it right away, or package it up and eat it later

ENJOY!!!!!