Roasted Tomato Soup with Gochujang Drizzle

(and kimchi grilled cheese sandwiches!)

Hi friends and Happy Friday! A sunny welcome from Southern California. We’ve had a mild winter so far. Temps were in the 70s F/20s C this week, so I’ve spent lots of time outside enjoying the sunshine.

If you need to close your eyes for a moment, the audio is posted above.

Every Friday this month we are diving into soups and warm things to eat with them! Last week’s soup was Veggie, Bean, and Farro with a delicious tomato herb bread.

Just a heads-up that next week’s soup is just for paid subscribers. It is Chicken, Corn, and Poblano Soup with pepita-topped cornbread. I’d love for you to become a paid subscriber so you don’t miss out!

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Subscriber Benefits in 2025

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Ok, let’s move on to this week’s soup aka hug-in-a-bowl!

Recipes

Roasted Tomato Soup with Gochujang Drizzle

Serves 4

Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

A SoCal take on a well-loved classic! This isn’t your typical tomato soup. The veggies are roasted for extra flavor and then blended into smooth deliciousness. A Korean-inspired drizzle tops things off with umami savoriness. It’s so good!

Soup Ingredients:

• 3 lbs fresh tomatoes

• 3 carrots

• 3 sticks celery

• 1 onion, trimmed and halved

• 1 head garlic, top trimmed

• 4 Tbsp olive oil

• 1/4 cup butter or other fat

• 1/4 cup flour or other thickener

• 4 cups vegetable broth

Drizzle Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp gochujang

• 1 Tbsp sesame oil

• 1 Tbsp soy sauce

• 1 Tbsp agave or other liquid sweetener

• 1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Garnish:

• sliced green onions

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F/200 C. Place tomatoes, carrots, celery, onion, and garlic (turn cut side down) on a rimmed sheet pan. If the carrots are fat, split them lengthwise so they cook in the same amount of time as the other veg. Drizzle everything with olive oil. Roast the veggies for 50 minutes then remove from the oven.

2. Using tongs, place the mirepoix ingredients (carrots, celery, and onion) into a blender or food processor. Blitz until pureed. Add the tomatoes. Squeeze the garlic cloves out of their papery husk and add the mushy cloves to the blender. Tip in all the pan juices. Blitz again for a minute or two. You may need to do this in two batches, depending on the size of your machine.

3. Now you have a choice to make. If you don’t mind some texture in your soup, leave the mixture as is. There will be small bits of seeds and skin and that might not bother you. However, if you like your tomato soup silky smooth like I do, strain the puree through a fine mesh strainer, pushing down on the solids to extract all the juices. You will do this in batches, depending on the size of your strainer.

4. In a large pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Tip in the flour and stir to make a roux. Add the vegetable broth and whisk to combine. Pour in the vegetable puree, stir, and heat until the soup is hot.

5. While the soup warms, combine the drizzle ingredients in a small bowl. It’s easiest to stir the gochujang and sesame oil together first, breaking up the pepper paste until it is smooth, then add the remaining ingredients. The drizzle tends to thicken upon standing, so add a 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of water to loosen it up, if needed.

6. To serve, ladle the soup into serving bowls. Spoon on some gochujang drizzle and top with green onions.

Kimchi Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Serves 2 to 4

Time: 15 minutes

Everything you love in an ooey-gooey grilled cheese sandwich, but made better with the zing of kimchi! This is a loosey-goosey recipe that you can change up by adding more cheese or other types of kimchi. I love the golden crispness that mayo brings to the outside of the grilled sandwich, but use butter if you prefer. You’re an adult so do what you want.

Ingredients:

• 4 slices sourdough or other bread

• 2 Tbsp mayonnaise

• 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack, mozzarella, or cheddar cheese

• 1/2 cup cabbage kimchi, patted dry with paper toweling

Directions:

1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Spread mayo on one side of the bread and lay the slice, mayo-side down, in the skillet. Pile on some cheese and kimchi, top with more cheese, then place another slice of bread on top. Spread mayo on the side facing up.

2. Cover the skillet with a lid and cook for 2 or 3 minutes. Check the bottom slice to ensure it doesn’t get too brown. Flip the sandwich over to the other side and cover. Cook for another 2 or 3 minutes or until cheese is melted and bread is toasty. Repeat process for the other sandwich.

3. Cut sandwiches in half (or not) and enjoy.

Betty Eatz Podcast

Did you know this month I’m launching the Betty Eatz Podcast? The show will be about real recipes created by real people. I interview food bloggers, recipe developers, and food writers from all over the world who create recipes worth making.

Finding a tried-and-true recipe that works and tastes good is becoming more and more like playing recipe roulette. There are a lot of terrible recipes floating around online that are untested, AI-generated, or just plain bad. Frequently our time, energy, and expense are wasted on these dishes.

Listeners of the show will learn how to identify good recipes from bad ones. And you will enjoy a behind-the-scenes look into the life of food creators and their secrets of combining ingredients to make the recipes you want to cook again and again. Plus, each podcast includes a recipe!

Later this month, you will find the podcast linked on my home page here on Substack as well as on your favorite podcast listening platforms like Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Tell Me

Did you grow up eating tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches? I’d love to know.

Next week’s post: Chicken, Corn, and Poblano Soup with Pepita Cornbread. It’s so yummy! See you next Friday.