Roasted vegetable soup

I don't think I've talked about lunch group here. In April 2007 four coworkers and I resurrected something from before my time at work - each member of the group brings in lunch for the rest of the group one day per week. So when we had five members, every day we got a home-made mostly-vegetarian meal! (We're flexible on the vegetarian part.)

We've had some gains and losses - one lunch group member is on sabbatical from us because her two small kids and busy life leave her unable to commit to cooking on a regular basis; another member is out on maternity leave right now. But we're carrying on with three right now, and it's almost completely responsible for my revived interest in cooking (my interest in baking is another story for another post).

After 2+ years I've gotten pretty good at winging it. Here's what I did a couple of weeks ago:

Bought a bunch of veggies:

Roasted them:

Heated them in some homemade chicken stock, then pureed them:

I also cooked some wheat berries and mixed them into the puree. I love wheatberries for their amazing chewiness - they NEVER get soggy, and they have a great almost nutty taste.

As a final touch, I had a pretty and flavorful puree made of roasted tomatoes, roasted garlic, and basil. Just a dab of that on top of the soup was enough to give it all a great flavor.

I sent a jar of the soup to my at-home-with-infant friends, and served the rest to lunch group. Yum!

Edited to add... haHAH! Librarians to the rescue, thanks Brian!