Red Pepper Bisque

Red peppers and tomatoes combined in a flavor-filled and healthy soup. Enhanced with not one, but two or three types of dried pepper spice.

Author: Sandra Daniels Recipe type: soup Cuisine: healthy Servings: approx. 4 cups

Ingredients:

• 3-4 large roasted red peppers

• 3-4 large roma tomatoes, roasted

• 1 carrot, diced

• 1 rib celery, diced

• ½ onion, diced

• 2-3 pints broth, chicken or vegetable

• ½ tsp. kosher salt

• ½ tsp. Aleppo pepper

• ¼ tsp. smoked paprika

• ⅛ tsp. white pepper

• ½ pint heavy cream

Instructions

Saute the diced carrot, celery and onion in a tablespoon or so of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium to low heat just until softened.

Add 1 cup of broth and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low. Cover the pot and simmer about 15 mins until the carrots are completely soft.

Add in the tomatoes, peppers and 2 cups of broth. Remove from heat.

Puree the mixture. An immersion blender is the easiest way to do this, but you can do it in a regular blender if you remove the stopper from the lid and cover that with a towel, being very careful to do it in small batches so you do not burn yourself.

At this point I recommend you strain the mixture so that you have a nice, smooth soup. You don't have to, but I like it better this way.

If the soup is too thick, add more broth.

Return the mixture to the pan and heat, then add the spices and taste. Season as desired.

Finish by adding ½ to 1 cup of heavy cream. Your choice! Taste for seasoning and adjust as needed.

Cooks notes:

This is a favorite of mine. I love things that are tasty and nutritious.

If you make it all completely from scratch, it is a little time intensive. But fear not! There are short cuts!

You can get delicious results by using jarred red peppers and canned tomatoes, even tomato juice and it will cut your prep time in half. If you use ready made broth, choose a low salt version. To sub for the fresh tomatoes, simply add 2-3 cups juice or canned whole or crushed tomatoes right before you purée the soup. BONUS: Plain tomato juice with no weird additives is pretty easy to find, in case you’ve been too busy to can your own.

I like to keep broth on hand so I can make soup when the weather says, “make soup!” This soup is great served with crusty no knead bread, topped with melted mozzarella.

Here’s a little video on how to roast your own tomatoes and peppers, as well as blending the soup in a blender.

More notes: Keep the solids that you strain out and use them as a thick spread for homemade pizza, added to softened cream cheese as a dip, or dehydrate and grind to make a tasty seasoning or sour cream/yogurt dip.