Roasted red pepper and tomato soup

Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato soup with Toasted Almond Cream and Basil

I love making this its so easy, because you don't have to faff around peeling stuff, which is something that really puts me off some recipes.  I know, its just my personal little annoyance, made all the worse for the fact that someone (probably me) has lost my little peeling and paring knife that I love, forcing me to use others, which I don't love.  Anyhoooo, this is what you need:

• 3 or 4 ripe red peppers
• 6 large or 12 vine tomatoes
• 1 large onion
• 1 bulb of garlic
• 3 sun-dried tomatoes (optional)
• 1 tblsp olive oil
• 1 vegetable stock cube

for the almond cream:

• handful of flaked almonds
• 1 dessert spoon of single cream
• teaspoon butter

And this is how you do it:

• put the oven on to 200 c
• halve and deseed the peppers, then flatten them out and put them in a roasting tray
• put the tomatoes straight in next to them, just as they are, no faffing!
• skin and halve the onion, put it in the roasting tray with the other ingredients
• free the garlic cloves from their bulb, and chuck em in - no need to take the paper off!
• add the sun dried toms if you're using them
• glug the oil in, over everything, and put in the oven for 40 minutes
• when its all nicely roasted, take it out the oven and let it cool a bit.
• at this stage, I squeeze the soft garlic out of its skin, and discard the skin.
• pour the whole lot into a big saucepan, add the stock cube and enough hot water to cover it all
• bring to the boil, then simmer for 15 minutes
• When its cooled off, whiz it up with a hand held blender
• pass through a sieve
• Enjoy!

If you want to add the toasted almond cream, you just need to heat a handful of flaked almonds in a frying pan with a little butter, until they're toasty brown.  Swirl in a little cream, and add to the soup.  Top it off with a couple of basil leaves.

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