Roast Carrot and Tomato Soup with Feta

This is such a simple soup; just roast peeled, halved carrots and halved tomatoes with a smidgen of olive oil, liquidize everything with vegetable or chicken stock and enrich and fine tune the flavours with a crumble of feta and squeeze of lemon. It ends up a rich, Heinz Tomato Soup colour with a creamy thick texture.

Serves 4
Prep: 15 min
Cook: 40 min

400g carrots
6 medium-large tomatoes
olive oil
2 chicken or vegetable stock cubes
50g Greek feta cheese
squeeze lemon
splash Tabasco, optional

Turn the oven to 170C/gas mark 3. Scrape and trim the carrots and cut lengthways in half and across into chunky pieces if very big. Place on a foil-lined, shallow roasting tin, dribble with olive oil, season with salt and place on a top shelf in the oven. Halve the tomatoes round their middles, place on a foil-lined shallow roasting tin, smear with olive oil and place on a shelf below the carrots. Check the tomatoes after 30 minutes – you want them squashy and juicy. Leave if a bit longer as necessary, the carrots will take a bit longer and could put the temperature up to 180C/gas mark 4 once the carrots are out. Tip both veg into a food processor/liquidiser bowl, add stock cubes dissolved in 1 litre boiling water (from the kettle). Liquidize a top speed for a couple of minutes until completely smooth. Tip into a saucepan passing it through a sieve to catch tomato pips. Heat through, taste and adjust the seasoning with salt, lemon juice, dash of Tabasco if you like a gentle chilli hit and crumble of feta, stirring as it dissolves. You could, as I’ve taken to doing, serve this lovely soup with a crumble of feta for garnish that melts seductively on the tongue.