Roasted Tomato & Fennel soup, for those Brrrr evenings…

Now, having Tomato soup on a cold evening is nothing new. [By the way, Hyderabad is undergoing a serious identity crisis. Its like its trying to be both Shimla and Hyderabad at the same time, what with the temperatures hitting 10 Celsius and all!]

I had a nice fennel bulb at hand, something whose flavour I absolutely love and wanted to preserve in the dish I make. And then I also wanted to have the tangy taste of the tomatoes in the soup. Which is why I decided to not blend the fennel with the tomato, and preserve it as it is, and roast the tomatoes which ensures that they are cooked and yet the flavour remains intact.
Roasting the tomatoes also happens to be my favourite way to cook a tomato, because of its ease in cooking and the ash-flavour mixed with the tanginess.

I used some basic herbs to give some flavour to this soup, you can change these herbs to suite your taste. Also, instead of topping the coriander leaves as garnish, I let the soup cook with these leaves for a while to ensure that there is a faint coriander smell to the soup. You can opt to use it as garnish too.

Ingredients
Tomatoes , medium sized – 4
Fennel bulb – 1, cleaned and chopped as fine as possible
Garlic cloves – 8-10, chopped fine
Dried Oregano – 1/2 tsp
Dried Basil – 1/2 tsp
Red Chilli flakes – 1/2 tsp
Ground pepper – 1/2 tsp
Coriander leaves – a bunch
Salt – To taste
Olive oil – 1/2 tbsp

Instructions

Pierce a fork into the tomatoes and hold them on the open flame of the stove. Tilt and twist the fork to ensure that all sides of the tomato is getting roasted. After a while, you will  hear  pop sounds, and the skin of the tomato like it is having blisters. This means, the tomato is cooked.

Repeat this for all the tomatoes. Let them cool, and peel off the skin of these tomatoes.
Blend them in a mixer-grinder to make a tomato puree.

In a pan, heat the oil, and sauté the chopped fennel and garlic . Add the rest of the ingredients to this, and let the fennel cook/sauté.

Add the tomato puree, some water and salt to taste, and let this boil. Add the chopped coriander leaves, and let the soup cook with the leaves in it.

Top with pepper and serve hot.

I had some cold soup and it tasted great too. So I guess, that's another option