Roasted Red Pepper Soup

I've had a few versions of Roasted Red Pepper Soup. This is not my favorite. I prefer my soups to be a bit hearty. As a starter or early course, this would be a wonderful soup. When Greg and I were picking food for our wedding reception, one of the catering suggestions was a Roasted Red Pepper Soup with a Bri soup added in. I think that would make this a bit heavier, and add just enough extra "something" to make this really pop.

When I first ate this, I had a bit of White Bean dip left over. I spread mine over an unbaked whole wheat pita half. It was delicious! I added more cumin and red pepper flakes to this batch of dip, and it was the best yet.

I'm not sure if I'll make this particular soup again, but I will make some version of it.

Recipe: Serves 6

3 red bell peppers, seeded, sliced
1 carrot, chopped
1/2 inch fresh garlic, finely chopped or grated
1 1/2 onion, chopped
4 C. water or broth of choice (I used chicken)
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper

-Coat bell pepper slices with extra virgin olive oil & salt and pepper. Broil for about 5 minutes.

-Heat extra virgin olive oil in a stock pot. Add onion, carrot, garlic, & ginger. Cook until onions are tender. 5-10 minutes.

-Add the bell pepper slices. Add the liquid. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes.

-Once cooked, puree in batches if you are using a traditional blender. I prefer my stick blender!

-Drain through mesh if you want this to be very smooth

-Serve warm & with a bit of shredded/grated cheese

-Enjoy!!!

Gazpacho

This past week has been super hot. Each day has been in the mid to high 80's or low 90's, and only getting down to the 70's at night. It's hard for me to want to eat and cook (or anything else) when it is that hot. I know it will only stay this way or get worse, so I figured we needed to start acclimating, and that gazpacho would help!

My Mom used to make gazpacho in the end of the summer when we realized that there were way to many tomatoes and cucumbers for us to put on salads or sandwiches. I remember taking a large yogurt container full of this cool raw soup to football practice/training in August, and that it was always super refreshing.

Since we don't have a garden, Greg and I ventured out to the local farmers market this morning to gather our bounty. I figured that there would be a noticeable difference between store bought tomatoes and the farmers market ones, but I had no idea just how much better they would be! There was so much meat on these baseball and larger sized tom's that you could have easily eaten one like an apple! They were just wonderful!

Staying to form, I browsed as many gazpacho recipes that I could find, and saw that there are really only three main ingredients: tomato, garlic, and bread. Yes, bread; I don't remember my Mom putting any in hers, but every other recipe calls for bread! Other common ingredients included: cucumber, bell pepper, cumin and paprika. Celery, jicama, and jalapeños were listed on several recipes, but I don't like that the celery flavor overpowers other more subtle flavors, so I opted to not use any. My end result is really not so much a true recipe, but a "technique" as my Mom would say.

The end result was pretty good. I like that the bread adds texture and substance to the soup, without changing any flavors. Next time I would put more cucumber and less Worcester sauce, but try to keep everything else about the same.

Recipe:

2 pieces of bread
5lbs of tomatoes
1 large cucumber
1 red bell pepper
3 cloves of garlic
1 1/2 C. of tomato juice (I'm sure V- 8 would also work fine!)
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
2 tsp Worcester sauce (I recommend using less, though)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

- Chop up half of the tomatoes, cucumber, and bell pepper. Keep skins, juices and seeds. Place into a large pot. Thinly slice the garlic and add to the vegetables. Tear apart both pieces of bread and add to the vegetables. Add the tomato juice, paprika, cumin, Worcester sauce, salt and black pepper. Blend this mix until it has formed a smooth puree.

-Finely chop the remaining vegetables. Add to the puree. Chill and serve cold. Stirring a spoon full of sour cream through the soup is also a delicious garnish.

-Enjoy!!!