Roasted Tomato & Eggplant Soup

I got this freezer-friendly recipe via Martha Stewart. She actually has a great selection of some freezer recipes that I'm interested in trying on her website. And all the pictures are oh-so-beautiful, of course.


I had made lasagna with eggplant last week and wanted to try out another eggplant recipe. I had most of these ingredients sitting around my house, so I decided to give it a try. It's an involved recipe for something so simple as soup. But I enjoyed making it. All the pureeing credit goes to my friend Nicole. I was busy making a Mediterranean tuna casserole while waiting on the veggies to roast on the soup, so she jumped in and helped me out. 



Ingredients:
3 tomatoes, diced (the recipe calls for 12, I used a can of crushed tomatoes instead)
1 large can of crushed tomatoes 
1/2 pound baby carrots, diced
3 tsp of minced garlic
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 large eggplant, chopped into 3/4 inch chunks
1 can of red kidney beans, drained & rinsed (you can use chick peas or other another bean)
2 tsp curry powder


Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
You will need two rimmed baking sheets. Spray with olive oil spray.
In one baking sheet mix together tomatoes, carrots, garlic, 1/2 tbsp olive oil oil, 1 tsp salt, & 1/4 tsp pepper. Spread in single layer.
On the other baking sheet mix together eggplant, beans, curry powder, 1/2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper. Spread in a single layer.
Place both sheets in oven. Tomato mixture on top rack and eggplant on bottom.
Roast until tender which will be about 30 minutes, toss halfway through.
Puree tomato mixture in a blender. Since we didn't use enough tomatoes their wasn't much juice, so instead of adding the 3 or 4 cups of water in the next step you can do it in this step. That way the tomato mixture will puree better in the blender. Or what we did is we added the crushed tomatoes and that allowed everything to mix better. 
Transfer to large pot. Stir in eggplant. Add 3 cups of water to thin. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Season with additional salt & pepper, if desired.
Let cool completely and transfer to storage container.
Freeze for no more than 3 months.
To eat later, defrost overnight, reheat over medium-high heat. Thin with water, if needed. Sprinkle with cilantro & crispy bread.







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