Roasted Mediterranean Vegetable Soup

This hearty soup was so good, I had three bowls of it last evening (and still have leftovers in the fridge). It was just the perfect dish for capping a winter evening, even if the weather was unusually warm for this time of year.

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons oil
• 1 lb 9 oz ripe tomatoes, skinned, cored and halved
• 3 large yellow bell peppers. seeded and halved
• 3 zucchini, halved lengthwise
• 4 garlic cloves, halved
• 2 onion cloves, cut into eights
• pinch of thyme
• 4 cups chicken vegetable, or beef stock
• 1/2 cup MimicCreme
• salt and pepper
• shredded basil leaves for garnish

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Brush a large shallow baking dish with olive oil. Laying them cut-sized down, arrange the tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini and eggplant in one layer (use two dishes if necessary). Tuck the garlic cloves and onion pieces into the gaps and drizzle the vegetables with the remaining olive oil. Season lightly with salt and pepper and sprinkle with thyme.
3. Place in preheated oven and bake uncovered, for 30-35 minutes, or until soft and browned around the edges. Let cool, then scrape out the eggplant flesh and remove the skin from the bell peppers.
4. Working in batches, put the eggplant and bell pepper flesh, together with the tomatoes, zucchini, garlic and onion place into a bowl and chop together using a knife.
5. Combine the stock and chopped vegetable mixture in a saucepan and simmer over medium heat for 20-30 minutes, until all the vegetables are tender and the flavors have completely blended.
6. Stir in the MimicCreme and simmer over low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until hot. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed. Ladle the soup into warm bowls, garnish with basil and serve.

Enjoy, gentle reader, enjoy!

CS