Roasted Root Vegetable Soup
Mary West - Seattle, Washington, USA

A delicious fall and winter soup, came up with this recipe after much experimenting, takes some time but well worth it!
Serves 6-8 large bowls

• 1 Large Eggplant, Whole
• 2 Med Rutabagas, Whole
• 2 Med Turnips, Whole
• 6 Carrots, whole
• 2 Med White Onions, peeled
• 4 Large Roma tomatoes, whole
• 1 red bell pepper, whole
• 1 yellow bell pepper, whole
• 1 green bell pepper, whole
• 2 Heads of Garlic (the whole head, not just a clove)
• 1 Med Parsnip, whole
• 4-6 small red potatoes, leave skin on, whole
• 8 cups vegetable stock, canned or fresh
• Olive oil to coat vegetables while roasting them
• 1 bunch fresh parsley, cilantro, chopped fine
• 6-8 basil leaves, chopped fine
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground cinammon
• 1 TBSP grated or diced fresh ginger
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp curry powder
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• soy cream, soy yogurt, or tofu topping

Oil large roasting pan, or line with foil, or use nonstick cooking spray to coat pan

Wash and dry all vegetables, trim off any stems, and spread out in the pan.
Be sure to puncture the eggplant, peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes with a fork in several places to allow steam to vent..leave all vegetables whole while roasting.

Cut off the root end of both heads of garlic which will expose some of the top of it and place in roasting pan with vegetables.

Sprinkle veggies with olive oil, salt and pepper

Roast 1 hour (your kitchen will smell heavenly!)

Stir once every 15 minutes to roast all sides.

While veggies roast, chop parsley and cilantro and basil into fine pieces, dice the ginger.

Remove roasted veggies from oven, remove any skins from tomatoes and peppers and the garlic, place all veggies into blender or food processor, puree' until smooth, you may need to add some stock to help blend this, and depending on size of your blender or processor, you may have to do more than one batch of veggies.

In large soup pan on stove, place pureed veggies, stock, chopped basil, parsley, cilantro, all spices, stir over med heat until blended, thin with more stock if necessary.
Check seasonings, add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve in bowls with dollop of soy cream, soy yogurt, or creamy tofu garnish

Any vegetable combination can be used with this recipe.
Also it is fun to experiment with the spices and herbs that you like.