Roasted Eggplant Soup

We get a weekly box of produce from Minto Island Growers.  Good stuff.  With the box, they include an electronic newsletter with information about the farm and some recipes to give folks ideas.  I used to make Andrew use the eggplant as eggplant Parmesan but I'm not eating the carbs or cheese like that.  So, what is a girl to do?  And, we've had lots of eggplant!

This week's newsletter had a recipe adapted from Bon Appetit.  I adapted it further.  It was tasty!  And, nutritious.  Try it, even if you don't like eggplant you'll like this!

Roasted Eggplant Soup

3 medium tomatoes, cored and halved
3 medium sized eggplants, halved
6 cloves garlic
Olive oil
1 tsp or so chopped fresh thyme
4 c. chicken broth (make your own in your crockpot...if you don't know how contact me immediately!)
1/2 c. creamy part of canned coconut milk

Preheat oven to 400°F. 

Arrange tomatoes and eggplant in a  large baking pyrex, or two smaller ones if you like. Put the garlic in a separate dish with a lid (use the lid on the garlic to keep them from burning).  Drizzle all of the vegetables with olive oil (be generous!) then roast them for 20 minutes. Check the garlic, if they look like they are getting too done take them out (mine were fine).  Keep roasting  another 25 minutes, until the  vegetables are tender and brown in spots. Remove from oven and scoop eggplant from skin into a heavy, large saucepan or soup pot. Add the rest of the vegetables, the thyme and the chicken broth and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook for about 20 minutes or so. Cool slightly.

Working in batches, puree soup in blender until it is as smooth as you'd like it to be. (Or, if you have an immersion blender, you can do this in the pot.) Put the soup back in the pot, add the coconut milk and season with salt and pepper.

Find more yummies at the Fat Tuesday Forager Festival! or Pennywise Platter Thursday!