Cherry Tomato with Garlic & Chilli soup, with fresh basil, cremefresh & croutons.

Now that the cold weather is upon us, there's nothing better than tucking into a  bowl of hot soup to either warm you up or get you through the rest of the day.

You can make this fresh & serve for dinner, or make up & warm through for lunch the following day. 

Ingredients:

1kg (2lb 4oz) ripe cherry tomatoes red and yellow. You can use all red, but I like the sweetness of the yellow ones.

4 large tomatoes

1 fresh red chilli

5 cloves of garlic

1 ciabatta roll, I used one with sun dried tomatoes in it

2 small red onions

5tbsp balsamic vinegar

A small bunch of fresh basil

A few dollops of créme fraîche, to serve

A cube of vegetable stock 

Sea Salt

Black Pepper

Place all the cherry tomatoes in a large roasting tin. 8th the larger tomatoes & then slice off the tough middle cores & discard these, as these won't break down that well during the cooking process.

Now throw the large tomatoes into the roasting tray with all the cherry tomatoes.  

Then de seed a red chilli & chop into small pieces. Leave the seeds in if you want a really good kick to the soup!

Now add the chopped chilli to the tomatoes in the roasting tray.  Crush all the garlic bulbs into the roasting tray also, season with salt & pepper & drizzle over a good glug of extra virgin olive oil & mix all together.

Now place the roasting tin in a preheated oven at 220 degrees for 15/20 mins.

Peel & chop your onions & pan to a low to medium heat frying pan & cover with a tea spoon of oil olive & leave to sweat down for 10 mins.  Then add 5 table spoons of your balsamic vinegar & cook down for a 5 minutes.

Now for the croutons.  Take a ciabatta roll, half lengths ways & the cut both halves into roughly the same size pieces.

Now place in a roasting tin of their own, drizzle a good glug of olive oil over them & season well with a good pinch of sea salt.  Place in the oven on a separate shelf to the tomatoes.  These will be lovely & crispy in 10/15 mins. Shake them half way through.

Now take the tomatoes from the oven & add to the pan with the onions & mix.

Now in two batches, carefully load up your blender with the tomatoes & onions mix, sprinkle in a veg cube stock, add 4/5 leaves per batch (or in one hit) & blitz to your preferred texture, I don't like mine too smooth.

Add each batch to a large bowl.  Once you have blitzed all the tomato mix, pour the blitzed soup back into your original pan & warm through on a low heat, this is where you can season to taste.

Now in a warm bowl spoon in your soup, add a tea spoon of crime fresh & garnish with so e extra basil leaves & Enjoy!