Fire Roasted Red Bell Pepper and Tomato Soup
Last week was another cold and wet week in Los Angeles. And there has just been some pretty nasty weather across the country, so I thought I'd make another soup to keep us warm. I admit I was tempted to make my Lemon Chicken Soup with Coconut Milk, Tuscan Kale, & Portobello again because it was so freaking good, but I opted to make this Fire Roasted Red Bell Pepper and Tomato Soup instead.
My goal for the weekend was simple.
Make only two recipes, so I can catch up on other stuff for the site. And be sure that the recipes would be quick to put together, so that I didn't also lose all weekend cooking. Let me just say, always plan for the unexpected. When your job is to create recipes, things don't always go as planned. In fact, roasted red bell pepper and tomato soup was not the original soup I had planned to make. Alas, while some recipes can turn out great on the first try, others can be horrible. I won't even mention what that first soup was. To be honest, I am still trying not to think about it. But, a bad recipe means I have two options. Go back to the store to re-buy the ingredients and make it again, or find a new recipe.
There was no saving my first soup choice.
So, off to the store I went, with a decision to make tomato soup this time. I bought lots of ingredients so that I wouldn't have to go to the store again, and got working on it. Of course, I haven't had tomato soup in years, so I couldn't really remember what it was supposed to taste like.
Three variations in, and I still wasn't happy with the final result.
However, I also knew I could find a way to make it work. It wasn't bad, it just didn't have the boldness or oomph I wanted it to. One of the things I have realized about creating recipes and photographing food, is that sometimes you just have to sleep on it, and come back with fresh eyes (or taste buds) the next morning. This was no different.
The next morning, when I woke up, I realized what I wanted to change.
First, I didn't want to use the standard, canned diced tomatoes. Roasting them would provide much more depth of flavor. Second, the red bell pepper, which had previously only been a passing flicker in my mind, as to an ingredient to use for the soup, was going to become one of the main ingredients. So, after the gym I stopped at the grocery store and picked up fresh tomatoes and some red bell peppers. I am fairly certain the people who work at Ralphs at that hour are going to start to know me by name. I have become a regular 6am customer, buying the odd, random ingredients and spices. Then, off to work I went again.
It was much better!
Fire Roasted Red Bell Pepper and Tomato Soup
The result was a super creamy soup that had a strong roasted red bell pepper flavor. Tomato and cinnamon bring additional sweetness. And it would be great served hot or cold. Did I end up with the strong umami flavor I was originally going for? No. This soup is one more on the sweeter side like a pumpkin, sweet potato, or butternut squash soup. But it is unique and delightful. It's keeping me warm. And it has been the perfect, healthy side dish next to the pork chops I have been eating all week.
Prep Time: 40 mins
Cook Time: 1 hr
Additional Time: 0 minutes
Total Time: 1 hr 40 mins
Ingredients
3 lb Roma Tomatoes (2 lb 3oz after De-seeded)
20 oz Grape Tomatoes (2 10oz Containers)
4 Medium to Large Red Bell Peppers (16.4oz After Cooked and De-skinned)
4 Extra Large Shallots (18.5oz)
6 Garlic Cloves (17g)
2 C Water
1/4 C Roughly Chopped Fresh Basil (12g)
2 TBSP Fresh Thyme
2 Sprigs Fresh Thyme
1/4 C Cooking Sherry
1/2 tsp Ground Cardamom
1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon (Plus more as desired)
Salt and Pepper to Taste (Optional)
Allspice or Chinese 5 Spice Powder to Taste (Optional)
Instructions
Roasting
Cut and prep veggies for roasting.
For Roma Tomatoes and Red Bell Peppers: Cut in halves or quarters. Remove Seeds and Innards.
For Grape Tomatoes: Cut in halves.
Place in oven at 400 degrees face up for 10 minutes
After ten minutes, flip the Roma Tomatoes and Red Bell Peppers skin side up.
Place all veggies back in oven for another 15-20 minutes
Turn on broiler, and cook for an additional 5-10 minutes. Watch closely. You want the skin to brown, but you aren't trying to burn the veggie.
Remove from oven.
Peppers and tomatoes are done when you can easily peel skin off,
Remove skins from peppers. Leave skin on tomatoes.
Set aside to cool.
Prep Garlic and Shallots
Chop garlic and shallots into smaller pieces. These can still be large chunks.
Place garlic, shallots, and buttery spread in large pot, and cook until aromatic. This will take approximately 5-10 minutes. Be sure to stir occasionally.
Other Ingredient Prep
Chop basil.
Measure out 2 TBSP fresh thyme (pull leaves off sprigs).
Take 1/4 cup of the water and place in microwave safe bowl. Add bouillon. Microwave for a minute. Stir until bouillon is fully dissolved in water.
Puree
Use an emulsifier or blender to puree cooked tomatoes, peppers, shallots, garlic, thyme, and basil. If ingredients are still hot, be careful to break into batches so you don't burn yourself.
Place all pureed ingredients back in pot.
Final Steps
Add all of the rest of the ingredients: bouillon water, additional water, sherry, two sprigs of thyme, cardamom, cinnamon, and optional ingredients if you choose. Let simmer and stir occasionally.
Notes
You can prep the garlic and shallots while the veggies are roasting.
When you are not stirring the garlic and shallots you can prep the other ingredients.
If you follow the above notes, you will cut prep/cook time in half.
I recommend you add all ingredients except for optional until after you have tasted it. Then decide if you want to add the other ingredients.
One Knorr bouillon (large rectangle) is equivalent to 2 bouillons for any other brand – so if you aren’t using Knorr, then you will want to compensate.
