Roasted Veg. Soup

I roasted all sorts of veggies this past weekend and then simmered it with chicken stock. Finished it by blending it up smooth. It's good, but has a slight bitter after taste. Anyone have any recommendations to balance this taste out?

razbry wrote:I roasted all sorts of veggies this past weekend and then simmered it with chicken stock. Finished it by blending it up smooth. It's good, but has a slight bitter after taste. Anyone have any recommendations to balance this taste out?

for some of my cream veg. soups(cauliflower, broccoli, etc). I add some sugar when cooking. Seems to take that away.

I think any useful replies would depend on knowing which veggies you roasted, and how.

Roasted tomato, eggplant, carrots, celery, yellow squash and onions with salt, pepper and olive oil for about 45 minutes. Jim, I thought about adding sugar, but I wanted to see if anything else might help. I see this as a great learning opportunity. I know there are some terrific chefs out there!

razbry wrote:Roasted tomato, eggplant, carrots, celery, yellow squash and onions with salt, pepper and olive oil for about 45 minutes. Jim, I thought about adding sugar, but I wanted to see if anything else might help. I see this as a great learning opportunity. I know there are some terrific chefs out there!

Sounds like an odd mix of ingredients to blend together, maybe it's just me. I’d omit the tomatoes and make a veg stock with the carrots, celery, and onions, which I’d strain out. I’d season and roast the squash and then puree it along with the veg stock to make the soup.

I really like this recipe from kennyz and the techniques have proved useful in my own soup attempts.

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It might be the eggplant. Did you leave the skin on? Some vegetables are more conducive than others for pureed vegetable soups, just from experience, of course.

Omit the celery or carrots. Everything else sounds good.

I would say it's either the eggplant or the yellow squash. I've had zucchini and summer squash go horrifically bitter if I've let them sit around too long (in some cases, that's a week).

I'd taste all the ingredients separately before adding next time. While not the most conventional mix necessarily, nothing strikes me as glaringly "ew" in the mixture.

razbry wrote:Roasted tomato, eggplant, carrots, celery, yellow squash and onions with salt, pepper and olive oil for about 45 minutes. Jim, I thought about adding sugar, but I wanted to see if anything else might help. I see this as a great learning opportunity. I know there are some terrific chefs out there!

lunanoir wrote:I would say it's either the eggplant or the yellow squash

gooseberry wrote:Omit the celery or carrots.

petite_gourmande wrote:It might be the eggplant.

Gee, in that case, what would be left in the veggie soup? Ah yes, tomato, onions, S&P, and olive oil. Mmmm....'Mater soup, better than Campbell's.

By the way, I took some of the tomatoes you left at the LTH picnic, and stuffed them with ground beef, rice, and shallots then baked them. Savory and satisfying for the cooler and rainy weekend we just had.

Yeah, a simple roasted tomato soup would be perfect I guess I'd do no more than a two or three veggie soup such as tomato/eggplant/other OR carrot/celery combo.

I too would guess eggplant might be bitter. I recommend Professor GWiv's Creamy Smoked Tomato Soup from Low and Slow for a single-vegetable, delicious soup.

Hi- Actually a lot of eggplant recipies recommend placing the slices of eggplant in a colander, and pouring salt on the eggplant. You then weigh down the eggplant, and let it drain for 30 minutes. You then rinse off the salt. This helps get rid of the bitterness. I made a batch of ratatouille last week, and I did this. Hope this helps, Nancy

Thank you one and all. I did take the skin off the eggplant, but I too suspect that this is what made it bitter. Smoked tomato soup.....sounds wonderful. I'm glad to know someone took home the veggies I brought to the picnic. I was hoping they wouldn't go to waste.

One of my favorite winter soups is roasted tomato, onion garlic, celery rutabega, carrot and parsnips. Roast the veggies until a singed, then, puree and finish off with a slow simmer in chicken stock. It's very mellow due to the parsnips, carrot and rutabega. It maikes a really good base for pasta and bean sopups too.

The new Martha Stewart Everyday Food issue just arrived in my mailbox. There is a chapter on roasted vegetable soups including a roasted eggplant and chickpea soup. They basically throw all the ingredients on a baking sheet and toast them in the oven at 400 degrees. Ingredients include peeled eggplant chunks, onions ...AND the chickpeas! I would never had thought to roast the canned chickpeas too (drained and tossed in a bit of oil). The roasted veggies (without the chickpeas) are then added to chicken broth and simmered a bit and the veggies mashed a little to break them up. Then chickpeas stirred in and soup is served with some fresh oregano and a dollop of plain yogurt.

Now does this sound like a good combo to you?

Your Pal Will and Joy...your soup ideas both sound excellent. Joy, here is something to try. Roast chickpeas with salt & pepper (or any spice you like) until dry. Makes for a great high protein snack!