Roast tomato soup

We have no plans to join in the Veganuary. First of all, this is not feasible for us, we love cheese, chocolate and ice cream too much. Second, I am all for individuality and not following the crowd - it comes from the days of my Soviet childhood and youth, when I absolutely detested doing the same things that were considered to be a must for my age and socialist agenda.
Plus, the Russian Christmas is coming in a couple of days, and I mean to celebrate it with a mini-feast. So, no plans for a Dry January either.
Saying that, my full respect to all those who brave the Veganuary/DryJanuary movement.

Today's recipe post is an accidental vegan recipe, just because most vegetable soups are, and were as such even before the word "vegan" was invented.

Roast Tomato soup
Ingredients:
440g tomatoes (2 packs of sugardrop or any other small tomatoes)
3tbsp chopped sundried tomatoes
1 clove of garlic
1/2 red onion, sliced thinly
2tbsp olive oil
a good pinch of black pepper
1tbsp basil and oregano
1tbsp balsamic vinegar
2tbsp tomato ketchup
1l vegetable stock

Preheat the oven to 180C. Place the tomatoes, drizzled with 1tbsp olive oil in a roasting tray. Roast for 15-20 minutes. I also like to add a tbsp of vodka when roasting the tomatoes, but don't have any vodka at the moment.
Thinly slice the onion and chop the garlic, and fry with 1tbsp olive oil in a small frying pan for about 5 minutes. Set aside.
Place the roasted tomatoes (you can easily remove skins at this stage, or leave them for extra texture),  chopped sundried tomatoes, onion and garlic to a medium sized pan, season with black pepper. Add the stock, vinegar, dried or fresh herbs, balsamic vinegar and tomato ketchup.
Bring to boil, then lower the heat and simmer for about 10-15 minutes.
Blend the soup until you reach smooth consistency.
Add a spoonful of soured cream or a vegan substitute.
Serve with a nice chunk of bread - for example, sourdough with butter (or whatever plan-based spread rocks your boat, if you're vegan).

This is an easy and tasty winter soup. The tomato ketchup adds extra sweetness and a real depth of flavour.

In this recipe I used Real Good Tomato Ketchup (no added sugar, 78% less salt, vegan-certified) which was one of the products in the last Degustabox.
If you don't have this ketchup, any good quality ketchup will work as well.

I prefer to roast small sized tomatoes, as they are sweeter and less watery, but again, you can use any tomatoes. If you add a sliced carrot or potato, the colour will be less bright.
It's a vibrant easy soup recipe to beat the January blues.