Who doesn’t love a good Soup & Sandwich combo for a quick fix lunch!? I mean I love a good grilled cheese… its the complete comfort food. I mean lets all be real… probably one of the fist things any of us made on my own. It was my go to when I would go home for Lunch in High school! and frankly Tomato soup is a better dipping sauce then Ketchup! so I’d always open a can of tomato soup too!

Now that I am older and have a little culinary skill… I figured why not take a grown up spin on a classic High school go to!  Since it is frigid and cold today, I thought maybe it would be a good idea to roast my tomatoes, red peppers and garlic to get a nice deep flavour in my soup and maybe warm up my condo (haha!) As I was pulling out the ingredients to make a standard grilled cheese… I saw the few pepperoni’s I still had from pizza night last week and I thought hey – Pizza Grilled Cheese would be delicious! and out came one of my new favourite lunchtime meals!

Roasted Tomato & Red Pepper Soup

What you need:

• 2 small white onions cut into quarters
• 5 fat cloves of garlic
• 2 containers of cocktail tomatoes cut into halves
• 5 Vine tomatoes cut into quarters
• 2 red peppers charred and skinned
• Salt & Pepper
• 1 tsp Thyme
• EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
• 2 tsp Red Wine Vinegar
• pinch of Red pepper flakes
• fresh Basil & Parsley for finish
• Black Truffle oil (optional)
• cheese garnish (optional)

What to do:

1. preheat the oven to 400 degrees
2.  create a foil pouch and put your whole garlic cloves and a splash of Truffle oil or EVOO and sit on the baking sheet
3. next on the same baking sheet add your cut tomatoes, onions, thyme, S&P and about 2 tsp of oil and mix together – make sure everything is flat to the baking sheet and place in the oven for about 30 minutes (I had half of a red pepper leftover so I just cut it up and tossed it in this mix just to use it)
4. If you have a gas stove ad can char your red peppers there – please do… if not… wait until your other veggies are finished, crank up the oven to Broil and char your red peppers for about 4 minutes each side (until you see black char marks on the skin)
5. when your veggies are done roasting let them sit a few minutes before adding them to the blender, food processor or a bowl for the hand mixer. This is when i did my red peppers
6. when the red peppers are done – place them in a bowl and seal with plastic wrap for about 5 minutes – this will help add some moisture back at the skin for easier removal. To remove the skin of a red pepper simply take a paper towel and start wiping the skin way. remove seeds and such and cut into chunks
   TIP: leave a little of that black charred skin on your peppers… I actually find it gives a nice smokey flavour to the soup!
7. Now you are going to blend the baking sheet of veggies, the garlic, the red peppers and the red wine vinegar, red pepper flakes and about 2 tbs of EVOO. (I did one of EVOO and 1 of Truffle oil)… blend until smooth and no chunks are left
   TIP: I just used a big pot and used my hand mixer to break the veggies down but you will get a smooth blend from a food processor or a blender as well.
8. lastly add a little fresh parsley and Basil as a finishing touch
9. a little cheese for garnish never hurts anyone either

for reheat… just toss in a pot and reheat on the stove stirring every few minutes.

makes 6-8 servings

Pizza Grilled Cheese

What you need:

• 8 slices of Pepperoni
• 2 old white cheddar (or whatever cheese you have/want)
• 2 tsp pizza sauce
• 2 slices of 12 grain Bread (or again whatever you have/want)
• 2 tsp butter

 

 

 

 

 

What to do:

1. butter two slices of bread on one side to the edges
2. on the other side of both slices spread pizza sauce to the edges
3. add a piece of cheese to the pizza sauce side of each slice of bread
4. add your pepperoni to one slice and top with other slice
6. place in pan on medium heat and cook until browned on the one side, flip, and brown the second side (TIP: I always PAM my pans for extra non stick) …about 4-5 minutes per side
7. remove from heat – let sit about 3 minutes before cutting into halves

That is it…. that is all there is to this meal. Super easy and super delicious!! crazy how little you need to pack alot of flavour into your day.

This soup is super healthy as well which is a nice plus! The Grilled cheese… maybe not… but its effin crazy Delicious and its pared with a healthy soup… I mean it could have been french fries…. right!?

enjoy friends
xo