Roasted Goodness

OK, yes, I'm on a mini-roasting kick. I blame Jill. Well, not blame. Thank. Yes, that's the word I'm looking for.

I took Ms. Murray's suggestion of roasting a bunch of veg in a cast iron skillet, then adding liquid and spices, then blending. Et voilà. It's that simple.

For this soup, I used:

• 1 leek, white part only, cleaned and cut into 1" pieces, then halved


• ½ red pepper, cut into large pieces


• 8 cremini mushrooms, halved


• 6 new potatoes, halved


• 5 shallots, halved


• 3 cloves garlic, smashed

And, much like last night, I roasted the veg at 350°F, this time  for 80 minutes, stirring occasionally. Before transferring the veg to a blender, I pulled the skin off the peppers, but this isn't mandatory.

To start, I poured in enough vegetable stock to cover the veg. I pulsed, then blended, gradually adding more stock until I got the desired consistency. Then I poured the soup into a saucepan to reheat. This made about 5 cups of soup.

I love the richness and depth of flavour that vegetables take on when they've been roasted, which absolutely stands up in this preparation. I had it with a really nice piece of toasted and buttered black olive ciabatta. Delish.