My soups have never been great – just ‘alright’ most of the time. I’ve been doing some reading and ‘book learning’ to overcome this. We had some guests over this Monday and I thought of going a little outside my comfort zone and trying a soup for once.
I’m glad I did, as it turned out well and was ridiculously simple to make.
Pop some nice, firm, red bell peppers into your oven and let them roast on a reasonably high heat, turning over once, till the skin is splotched black all over. Meanwhile, put a pot of stock on the fire and toss in some bay leaves, garlic, diced potatoes, onions and some ground white pepper. Bring to boil and then simmer.
Since I’ve never done it before, I didn’t know how much difference roasting peppers make, nor the aroma that fills the kitchen when peppers are merrily cooking away in the oven – heavenly. When your peppers are done, take them out and peel them. Discard the skin, stalk and seeds. Keep the soft and tender flesh and any juices that have spilled out. Pop the whole lot into your pot and bring to the boil once again.
Take the pot off the heat, remove the bay leaves and put the whole lot into a blender and give it a few whizzes. Put back into a pot, bring to the boil. The soup is now done. Check for seasoning, thicken a little if you like, garnish with a spoon of finely chopped, deseeded, red chilli peppers and a little cream.
My guests loved it and so did I. I hope it turns out well for you too.
- Sid
Really good recipe. Here I am tearing my hair out trying to find unusual vegetarian recipes for soup and all the while you are right there with the answers.
I love roasted peppers. Did you know that if you take them out of the oven and put straight into a plastic bag and leave them for a few minutes, the skin peels off more easily? They taste much nicer roasted than fried or raw.
Yes, I think I’ve read that somewhere – never tried it though. I’ll be sure to remember it next time. Thanks!
hey try this soup,
Ingredients
* 1 stick leek
* 1 kilo potato
* 3 litres vegetable stock
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon pepper
* 1 teaspoon thyme
* 100 millilitres white wine
* 6 cloves crushed garlic
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
Put olive oil into pot and heat up, slice leek and crush garlic then add to pot. Fry off until tender. Add seasoning and thyme and cook for 30 seconds. Add white wine and cook until the alcohol is cooked off. Peel and cut potatoes into 2cm pieces and add to the pot. Add vegetable stock and cook for 60 minutes so that all the flavours are infused and the vegetables are tender. Use a stick mier to blend the soup until it is nice and creamy. Check seasoning and serve hot.