Roasted Vegetable Soup. BBQ Beans. Cozy Fall Meal.

This super-comforting Roasted Vegetable Soup has a warm, slightly spicy, fire-roasted tomato broth, with accents of black pepper, bay leaf and celery. The roasted veggies are a colorful array of cubed mushrooms, zucchini, red bell pepper and sweet onion. Accents of fresh rosemary and roasted garlic. Slender slices of roasted sweet potato accent each bowl. This stew contains some unique ingredients too, like golden raisins and kalamata olives.

I paired this soup with some BBQ snow cap heirloom beans. Soaked, boiled and then roasted until tender with seasonings in the oven.

If you are craving some steamy warmth to fold your head over, spoon in hand, grab this recipe and get roasting..! Plus check out my studio vs. natural lighting photo session..

This was a lovely dinner with STEW as the entree. Prepare to crave "seconds"

BBQ-Rosemary Snow Cap Beans on the side..

I love roasting veggies on the weekend..

This soup was inspired by my stay at Golden Door last week. You can read all about it in my Golden Door Spa Travel Feature. The amazing chef, Chef Cooke, served up several dinner entrees that included a warm tomato broth that was slightly spicy and studded with sweet golden raisins, that plumped up into tender globes upon soaking in the hot tomato broth. One night I even spotted some kalamata olives and capers in the stew. It was so delicious that I decided to create my own golden-raisin-studded tomato broth stew. The recipe below (plus a side of BBQ beans) was quite a success, it served up as a perfect meal for a chilly fall night. Serve with crusty bread and maybe a glass of red wine.

Photography Talk. To play around a bit, I experimented with some studio lighting for this shoot - then shot the same dish in natural lighting. I always use natural lighting, so "studio lights only" was new for me. I have to say I do prefer natural lighting for food photography, since studio lights can make the colors look "flat" sometimes. But I think both shots turned out pretty well. Studio lighting makes the food tones and textures very well-lit and vibrant (but maybe almost brashly) compared to more quirky-shadowy-moody-delicious-lovely natural lighting. Anyways, what do you think?

Check out studio vs. Natural..

studio:

natural:

studio:

natural:

studio:

This stew is so perfect for warming up on a chilly night. You can even add in some of your own favorite ingredients if you'd like. I include some of my favorite optional add-ins below.

Roasted Vegetable Stew / Soup
vegan, serves 3-4 hungry adults for entree portions

Tomato broth:
28 ounces fire-roasted crushed tomatoes (canned)
6 cups vegetable broth
1 cup celery, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
10 dashes cayenne (or to taste)
2 bay leaves
10 kalamata olives, halved
⅓ cup golden raisins
⅓ cup flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

Roasted Veggies:
2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoon lemon juice
2 large portobello mushrooms, diced
1 small sweet onion, chopped
2 medium zucchinis, diced
1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
1 small sweet potato, peeled and sliced into planks*
2-3 large sprigs of fresh rosemary (any fresh herb will work .. thyme is great too)
½ teaspoon salt + pepper and any additional spices you'd like to add (I used Penzey's Spices 4/S seasoned salt, spicy)

*if you want your sweet potato extra sweet, roast the planks in a separate sheet and add in 1 tablespoon of maple syrup.

I also added in (but optional)
½ cup nutritional yeast
1 Field Roast Spicy Chipolte Vegan Sausage
3 garlic cloves (roasted)
1 ½ cups kale, chopped

Nutritional info based per serving - does not include add-ins (4 servings per above recipe) (add beans and/or vegan sausage to boost protein)

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 415 degrees.
2. Prep all your veggies and toss with the olive oil, rosemary and lemon. Add to a large baking sheet.
3. Roast veggies for about 30 minutes, or until they are tender and caramelized. The potatoes will probably need an extra 15-20 minutes tp become tender.
4. While the veggies are roasting, start on your broth. Puree the tomatoes in a blender - until perfectly smooth.
5. Place the tomato puree and all other broth ingredients in a large soup pot. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cover. Simmer on low while veggies roast. Taste the broth and add in more or less salt/pepper other seasonings as you'd like. I added in some vegan sausage and nutritional yeast to boost the flavor even more since this is an entree dish for me.
6. When the veggies are roasted you can either serve the soup with the broth and veggies spooned right over top (as shown in the photos.) OR you can just toss the roasted veggies into the broth and simmer until ready to serve. I actually prefer to just toss them in, but the spooned version does look prettier. 🙂
7. Serve with freshly chopped parsley, a sprig of rosemary and fresh black pepper over top. A drizzle of additional olive oil too if desired.

BBQ Beans: Soak you beans overnight. Drain and rinse well. Boil the beans in veggie broth or water until most of the liquid is absorbed. Keep adding liquid until the beans are soft, silky and tender. This may take a few hours even! Use a slow cooker if you have one. Then I simply added my tender beans to a roasting dish and roasting at 400 degrees with 1 tablespoon of BBQ seasoning + a sprig of fresh rosemary. Add more liquid and roast until tender and caramelized. You can also use any "beans" recipe you'd like to pair with this stew. I liked the slight sweetness of the BBQ flavor.