Make-ahead Roast Vegetables for Soup

Ingredients to roast for the recipe “Roast Cauliflower Tomato Soup”, include a cauliflower head, four cups of cherry or San Marzano tomatoes, and four tablespoons of minced, fresh garlic.

Cherry tomatoes or San Marzano tomatoes are the varieties of choice because they do not contain as much tomato juice and have fewer tomato seeds. These tomatoes do not need to have the pulp scooped out. Proper preparation of the tomatoes is slicing in half for cherry tomatoes. For San Marzano tomatoes, slice in quarters, lengthwise, then half-inch segments crosswise to achieve the same size of chopped tomatoes as the sliced cherry ones.

The cauliflower head is sliced in half-inch thickness crosswise slices through the whole head. Cutting in this fashion yields four or five slices for the whole head. These are then broken up into smaller sections, manually, as shown in the picture.

Mincing raw garlic completes the cutting preparation. With the vegetables properly prepared, they are laid on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and the oil is drizzled over, and lightly combined. At this point the cookie sheet of prepared ingredients is put into a 425 degree Fahrenheit oven for 15 minutes. Stir after this time is up, then return to the oven for another 5-10 minutes to complete roasting.

With the conclusion of this step, the roasted vegetables may be left to cool to room temperature—for ten to fifteen minutes. Then, the vegetables may be spooned into a quart-sized freezer bag, labeled, chilled in the refrigerator two or three hours, and finally, transferred to the freezer.

On the day the finished soup will be made, remove the frozen, roasted vegetable bag from the freezer, leaving it in the refrigerator 4 – 6 hours before time of use, or over the previous night.

Proceed with the recipe for “Roast Cauliflower Tomato Soup,” starting with Step 2. The remaining steps will take 30 minutes to complete, but are so easy, as to leave the cook free to multi-task in the kitchen while attending to the remaining tasks of making the soup.

Enjoy the abundence of tomatoes available for roasting during this season, starting with the hearty, flavorful “Roast Cauliflower Tomato Soup.”