Souper Douper: Roast Tomato, Chilli and Cumin Soup

I think we can all agree that it's officially soup weather. There is nothing nicer than curling up with a huge bowl of soup and half a loaf of crusty bread when it's cold outside. No less than half a loaf, mind - this season is all about the carb-loading too.

I adore tomato soup but always resisted making it home because I hate the bits of tomato skin you get floating in it. And then I found a recipe that gave me the radical idea of - wait for it - removing the skins. No faffing about trying to peel them when they're cold either; after roasting them, you can pick the skins off with ease. Smooth soup = happy Sara.

Roast tomato, chilli and cumin soup (serves 4)

Adapted from an Allegra McEvedy recipe

You will need:

• 5-6 tomatoes
• 120ml olive oil
• 1 tbsp fructose (failing that, just sugar)
• 3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
• 2 large red onions, thinly sliced
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 3/4 tsp dried chilli flakes
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• Salt and pepper

Make it!

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5.
2. Take a shallow roasting tin and pour on half the olive oil. Add the fructose, garlic, salt and pepper, then stir it around so it's evenly mixed. Halve the tomatoes and place them cut side down in the oil. Roast them for 20-30 minutes until the skins have shrivelled and the tomatoes are soft and squeezy.
3. While they're roasting, put the rest of the oil in your biggest saucepan and fry the onions, ground cumin, cumin seeds and chilli over a medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 10-15 minutes with a lid on until the onions are soft.
4. Add the tinned tomatoes and cook for about 10 minutes. Pour in about 800ml of water and simmer. Tip: rather than finding your measuring jug, just fill your empty tomato tin twice to give you 800ml. Now it's all clean for the recycling and you have one less thing to wash up.
5. When the roasted tomatoes are ready, leave them until they're cool enough to handle. Pick off the skins by hand; if you pinch the tomato in the middle, the skin should come away easily. Add the tomatoes and all the flavoured oil to the saucepan. Simmer for 20 minutes.
6. Pour it all into a blender and blitz until smooth. Add water if it's too thick.

Serve with an enormous hunk of bread and make someone else do the washing-up.