Gordon Ramsay’s roasted red pepper and tomato soup is a chilled summer soup from his 2016 cookbook, Bread Street Kitchen. Plum tomatoes and red peppers roast until slightly blackened, then simmer with onion, celery, basil and sun-dried tomato paste before the soup is sieved and chilled. It takes about 90 minutes, plus several hours in the fridge, and serves 4, or 6 smaller bowls.
He calls it wonderfully refreshing, a soup for a summer lunch. It has to be made ahead so it can chill, which he says really intensifies the flavors.
He serves it in chilled bowls with diced cucumber, and for a party he suggests pouring it into shot glasses as a summer canapé.
Gordon Ramsay’s Roast Red Pepper and Tomato Soup
Course: SoupsCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy4
15
minutes1
15
minutes265
A chilled Gordon Ramsay roasted tomato and red pepper soup, blended smooth, sieved and finished with cold tomato juice, cucumber and basil.
Ingredients
- For the soup:
2ÂĽ pounds (1 kg) plum (Roma) tomatoes, halved
2 red bell peppers, deseeded and cut into large pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 celery rib, trimmed and chopped
2 heaping tablespoons sun-dried tomato paste
2 teaspoons tomato paste (tomato purée)
1â…” cups (400 ml) hot vegetable stock
a small handful of fresh basil leaves, plus a few sprigs to garnish
scant ½ cup (100 ml) tomato juice, chilled
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
ÂĽ English cucumber, diced, to garnish
Directions
- Roast: Heat the oven to 400°F (200°C), or 350°F (180°C) convection. Put the tomatoes cut side up in one roasting pan and the peppers in another, drizzle each with about 1 tablespoon of oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast for about 40 minutes, until slightly blackened at the edges, taking the peppers out first if they blacken sooner.
- Soften: Heat the 2 tablespoons of oil in a large saucepan over low heat. Cook the onion, garlic and celery gently for about 5 minutes, until soft but not browned.
- Simmer: Stir in the sun-dried tomato paste and tomato paste and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the roasted tomatoes and peppers with their juices, raise the heat to medium, bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Pour in the hot stock and simmer for 5 minutes more, then stir in the basil and cook for a couple of minutes.
- Blend: Take the pan off the heat and let it cool slightly. Blend until smooth with an immersion blender or in a blender, then press it through a fine sieve into a bowl, which also catches the skins.
- Chill: Let the soup cool, then chill it in the fridge for several hours, at least 4, until cold.
- Serve: Stir in the cold tomato juice and season with salt and pepper. Ladle into chilled bowls and top with the cucumber, a sprig of basil and a drizzle of olive oil.
Notes
- Taste it cold before you season it. Chilled food needs more seasoning than hot food, as he writes in A Chef for All Seasons.
- Sun-dried tomato paste comes in jars and tubes near the tomato paste. Without it, blend about 4 drained sun-dried tomatoes in oil to a paste.
- Put the bowls in the freezer for about 10 minutes before serving so the soup stays cold.
- For a vegan soup, check the labels: use a vegan vegetable stock, and make sure your sun-dried tomato paste isn't a pesto, which usually has cheese in it.
FAQs
Can I serve it warm?
You can, though he serves it cold. Skip the chilling, reheat the sieved soup gently, then stir in the tomato juice and season.
Does he make another pepper and tomato soup?
Yes, besides his raw gazpacho soup recipe, his 2000 book A Chef for All Seasons has a chilled pepper and tomato soup with crab cocktail. Peppers, tomatoes, shallots and herbs cook gently in oil, then go in the blender with 3⅓ cups (800 ml) tomato juice and a scant ½ cup (100 ml) heavy cream.
He pours it around a small mound of crab, apple and lettuce on crushed avocado. There he says roasting or grilling the pepper first gives it more kick, which the recipe on this page does with both the peppers and the tomatoes.
Can I make it ahead?
Yes. The soup keeps for 2 to 3 days, covered, in the fridge, and for up to 3 months in the freezer before the tomato juice goes in.
Add the tomato juice, seasoning and garnish only when you serve it, as he does.
How is it different from his tomato soup with pesto?
This one is cold, cream-free and sweetened by roasted red peppers. His tomato soup with sun-dried tomato pesto from Ultimate Home Cooking is roasted with cayenne, finished with cream and served warm.
Zaytouna Studio Team is the kitchen team behind Chef Ramsay Recipes. We cook Gordon Ramsay’s recipes from his cookbooks and videos in a home kitchen and write them up for yours, with US and metric measurements.