First recipe of the year! And it’s a good one if I do say so myself. One that I worked on quite a bit last year to get it to where it’s at today. Spoonfuls of creamy roasted veggies that are then pureed and loaded with aromatics like onion and garlic. This creamy tortellini soup is loaded with tons of roasted veggies and is hearty and warm and comforting. The best thing you can eat, especially if you’re down with this winter-virus situation we’ve got going on right here. I was in the thick of it for what felt like more than two weeks. I’ve still got a nasty cough to prove it. And when I’m sick, I want carbs. All the carbs and nothing but. Luckily, a warm bowl of creamy tortellini soup certainly checks the ‘carbohydrate’ box but also comes loaded with tons of fresh roasted veggies to give you the boost you need to nurse you back to health. Praise be.
One thing that I absolutely love doing when I’m making my secret ingredient tomato soup (and now this creamy tortellini soup) is giving the veggies a good rub of olive oil and a generous sprinkle of salt and pepper and then allowing the vegetables to roast in the oven for an hour. The slow roasting process really helps caramelize the veggies. Which then lends so much free caramelized flavor to this soup. This got me thing, if we can make roasted tomato soup, why not add red peppers to it and make roasted veggie soup, spike it with cream, and add tender tortellini and turn it into a complete meal? My god, the smells alone could make your stomach growl. Okay, I lied. There’s another thing I love about this soup. It’s the fact that you can roast the veggies up to two days in advance, allow them to cool, refrigerate them and then just blend up the soup the day you want to serve it. Or you could even prep the entire soup a couple of days ahead of time and just boil the tortellini and add it to your bowl (or the pot) before serving. I don’t know which option is better, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to take advantage of both.
What veggies do we roast for this creamy tortellini soup?
red bell peppers tomatoes (use a good variety – Campania, Roma, etc.) onions carrots garlic
How to make the best creamy tortellini soup:
I don’t have an immersion stick blender, how would I blend the soup?
You can transfer half of the batch of roasted veggies along with 1 cup of vegetable stock to a traditional blender and blend until smooth. Then, add this to the soup pot and repeat the step with the remaining roasted veggies, but this time, also add the basil and the seasonings (paprika, red pepper flakes, and thyme). Add the remaining 2 cups of stock to the soup pot and then continue with the recipe as directed.
Why do we roast the veggies before blending it?
The slow roasting process brings out the flavors more. It sweetens the veggies and allows them to blend very easily with the stock.
I want a lighter version can I use a different pasta to make this tortellini soup?
You can use prepared egg noodles, fusilli, bow tie pasta, and even shells in place of the tortellini if you want to cut back on the cheese. I’ve got good news for my GF friends, you can use a gluten-free pasta in place of the tortellini.
I want to up the protein, what can I add to this soup?
Swap the cheese tortellini for a kind stuffed with meat! You can use the chicken and prosciutto kind, the one with spinach and ricotta, or even the kind with Italian sausage! The pasta-abilities are endless. Sorry I couldn’t resist.
I don’t want to use heavy cream, what can I use to make this soup creamy?
I’ve used homemade basil pesto to replace the heavy cream entirely in my tomato basil soup, and it is one of the most popular recipes on the blog – every year! So you could simply do that. If you’re looking for something dairy-free, you could try coconut cream, but keep in mind I have not tried this myself. In theory, it should work. However, I’m not entirely sure if the coconut flavor comes through a lot (I don’t think that would be bad, but again, I haven’t tried it.) I hope this inspires you to get out a bunch of veggies and roast them until they are blistered, soft, and roasty-toasty. This from-scratch roasted veggie creamy tortellini soup is going to be a go-to for when I’m feeling under the weather, and though I hope you don’t get sick, that this soup does become a favorite of yours as well!
If you don’t have an immersion stick blender: you can transfer half of the batch of roasted veggies along with 1 cup of vegetable stock to a traditional blender and blend until smooth. Then, add this to the soup pot and repeat the step with the remaining roasted veggies but this time, also add the fresh basil and the seasonings (paprika, red pepper flakes, and thyme) and blend. Add the remaining 2 cups of stock to the soup pot directly and then continue with the recipe as directed.
