Roasted Tomato + Leek Soup w/ Basil Rice

Ingredients: Beefsteak Tomatoes, leeks, garlic, brown rice, fresh basil + stems, dried basil, dried thyme, kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, sugar, olive oil 

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This is probably the best comfort soup for Fall! It has very minimal ingredients that yields such a flavorful and filling soup. It's fairly simple to make with an extra step to puree them all together to get it to that perfect consistency. 

Roasting the tomatoes probably took the longest, taking about 1 1/2 hours in the oven at 400F - but it's worth it! Start by halving the Beefsteaks crosswise (I used about 7 tomatoes), sprinkling them with the dried herbs, salt & pepper, and olive oil. Once they come out of the oven, they're practically falling apart, incredibly juicy and very very sweet. Plus it gets your kitchen smelling like Italy. 

In a large Dutch oven or equally durable pot, sauté about 4 garlic cloves in some olive oil until they're golden and then throw in the chopped leeks (white and pale green parts only!). Once they've softened, add the tomatoes and simmer for about 15 mins until they're officially falling apart. Then throw the whole mixture into the blender and puree the hell out of it - as chunky or as smooth as you want.

Transfer the soup back into the pot and let it simmer a bit more and do some taste-testing, adding salt, sugar, or more black pepper to taste. 

I serve this with some Basil Brown Rice, cooking the rice with several fresh basil stems (just take off the leaves) so that the rice absorbs the aromatics of the basil. Spoon some into your soup bowls and ladle the soup right over it. This will be great with some Parmesan cheese crisps, a dollop of Ricotta, or of course, some fresh basil.