Roasted Tomato and Eggplant Soup

from Martha Stewart

I rarely feel the need to tell friends and family about the latest, greatest thing but this soup I could go out and proselytize for…or just write a positive review on my little blog but you must try this soup! It hasn’t gotten much comment love over at MarthaStewart.com and it deserves so much more. It’s the perfect time of year to make this soup when coworkers are dumping tomatoes in the breakroom and the temperature has dropped low enough that the thought of turning your oven on for a whole hour doesn’t give you heat rash.

I pretty much follow the recipe but here are a few notes:

• Watch the roasting carefully, the skins of the tomatoes are removed at the end but if everything underneath is burnt to a crisp you won’t have much left for soup (not that this has ever happened to me).
• Try using baby carrots, it seems like full sized carrots are always bitter and you can taste it in the soup if they are. Or skip them, who likes carrots anyway?
• More garlic never hurts.
• I haven’t tried this yet but I think it would be delicious over rice. Blend the roasted tomatoes, carrots, and garlic with just enough water to get the job done then put in a pan with the eggplant and chickpeas to simmer down a bit.