Smooth Roasted Vegetable Soup

This soup is a good example of how much flavour a sheet tray can give you. Raw onions and peppers taste sharp and watery, but once they have spent half an hour in a hot oven their sugars start to caramelise at the edges, and that bronzed colour carries through into the bowl. Courgettes soften and sweeten in the same way, and the tomatoes collapse into something jammy. You are really building a deep base before any liquid goes in, which is why the soup tastes richer than the short ingredient list suggests. If you enjoy this kind of slow-roasted depth, you could try the same approach with Baked aubergines with mozzarella and tomatoes.

A small thing that makes a difference: spread the chunks out in a single layer and give them room. If they are crowded, they steam, and you lose the browning that makes the soup taste like more than vegetables. If your tray is full, use two. Peppers are the part that takes the longest to turn tender, so if you cut the courgettes a little larger than the onions, they will finish at roughly the same time.

Blending hot vegetables needs care. Let the roasted batch cool for a few minutes, fill the jug only part way, and keep the lid vented or hold a folded tea towel over it while you blitz. Once it is smooth, taste before you add any salt, because the stock cube and the nutritional yeast already bring savouriness. The yeast adds a cheesy, nutty note that people often cannot place, which is a nice reason to keep it in the recipe rather than leaving it out.

Leftovers keep well. Cool the soup quickly, then store it in a sealed container in the fridge for up to three days, or freeze it in portions. It thickens as it sits, so loosen it with a splash of hot water when you reheat it. Frozen soup is best used within a couple of months.

For a light lunch, this soup pairs nicely with a plain grilled piece of fish. The Oven Roasted Sea Bass with Peppers echoes the same roasted pepper flavour, so the two plates feel like they belong together. If you want something with more bite on the side, the Sticky Chinese Chicken and Pepper Skewers bring a sweet, smoky contrast to the smooth, mellow soup.