Roasted Tomato Soup with Roasted Garlic and a Cold Butter Velvet Finish

This roasted tomato soup starts with eight plum tomatoes and a whole head of garlic, both roasted at 220°C, then cooked down with onion and sun-dried tomato and put through a food mill. Cold butter blended in at the end gives it a velvet finish, with no cream.

I watched a Jacques Pépin video on YouTube and went looking for the recipe. It's in his book, Jacques Pépin: Heart & Soul, as Tomato Velvet. I borrowed three things from it: the sun-dried tomatoes, the food mill and the cold butter finish. The roasting, including the roasted garlic, is mine.

Where This Roasted Tomato Soup Comes From

From Pépin: the sun-dried tomatoes, which add umami; the food mill, which keeps the skins and seeds out of the bowl; and the cold butter blended in at the end for the velvet finish. From me: roasting the tomatoes and the whole head of garlic together in a hot oven, then squeezing the roasted garlic into the pan.

If you want his own Tomato Velvet recipe, it's in the book.

Ingredients

Serves 2 – I ate one portion and froze the other

The Roast

• 8 plum tomatoes, about 600g, sliced
• Olive oil, for drizzling
• Black pepper
• 1 whole head of garlic
• Olive oil and a pinch of salt, for the garlic

The Soup

• 1 medium Spanish onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• A pinch of salt
• 1 bay leaf
• 2–3 sun-dried tomato halves, drained and chopped
• 400ml vegetable stock
• 15g cold butter
• Olive oil, to finish

Method

1. Roast the tomatoes. Heat the oven to 220°C (conventional). Put the sliced tomatoes on a tray, drizzle with olive oil and season with black pepper.
2. Prepare the garlic. Slice 5–8mm off the top of the head to expose the cloves. Drizzle with olive oil and a pinch of salt, and wrap in foil.
3. Roast. Roast the tomatoes and garlic together for 25–30 minutes, depending on the size of the tomatoes. The oven should be hot enough to blister and caramelise them.
4. Cook the onion. While they roast, cook the chopped onion in the tablespoon of olive oil over a low to medium heat for about 12 minutes, with a pinch of salt and the bay leaf.
5. Combine. Add the roasted tomatoes to the pan. Squeeze in the softened roasted garlic, stir and keep cooking.
6. Add the sun-dried tomatoes and stock. Add the chopped sun-dried tomato for umami, then the vegetable stock. Stir and cook for 5 minutes.
7. Mill. Pass the soup through the food mill. The skins and seeds stay behind.
8. Finish with butter. Return the soup to the pan, add the cold butter and blend it in with a hand blender.
9. Serve. Finish each bowl with a swirl of olive oil.

Notes

This is my roasted take, not Pépin's Tomato Velvet itself. I used 15g of butter for two portions. It was good.

For a very different tomato soup, try my Nearly Heinz Tomato Soup Recipe — A Homemade Cream of Tomato Soup.

FAQs

How long do you roast the tomatoes?
I roast sliced plum tomatoes at 220°C for 25–30 minutes, depending on their size, until they blister and caramelise.

Is there cream in this soup?
No. Cold butter blended in at the end gives the velvet finish.

What is Tomato Velvet?
It's the name of Jacques Pépin's tomato soup in Heart & Soul. This version borrows from it, but the roasting is my own.

What do the sun-dried tomatoes do?
They add umami.

How many does it serve?
Two portions. I ate one and froze the other.

If you've enjoyed the recipes, you can buy me a coffee ☕ — it helps keep the site going.

This roasted tomato soup is featured in my Soup Recipes hub.

Find more recipes and food adventures here, or browse all the recipe hubs.

Wonky photos, proper food, genuine adventures — The Flexible Chef