Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Greetings, great multitude of Carl food blog readers. I'm sure you're all warmly welcoming me to Shawn's little corner of the internet. He's kindly permitted me to breath some life into his wheezing blog while he continues to procrastinate on posting his own content. Of course, he didn't grant me admin privileges so I can't go back and insert insults into his posts (though he can do so for mine so I guess I had better watch my mouth).

At any rate, I no longer have a personal blog so I'm going to use Carl's Kitchen as my dumping ground for recipes that I want to keep. The difference between my posts and Shawn's are that his are glorious failures for the most part and I'm only going to be noting my successes. That doesn't mean I don't have my own spectacular failures, but rather that I don't have the time to note them for posterity (not that Shawn has the time either, as is evidenced by his lack of posting).

At any rate, I'm going to start with this roasted red pepper soup recipe which I modified based on a recipe at eCurry. Though this soup was really good, I have to warn anyone who tries it that I got sore spots under my tongue and my gums ached after eating this a few times. I'm guessing it was a bit too much capsicum for me, but I ate it anyway because it was damn tasty.

Here's my recipe:

• canola oil sufficient to cover the bottom of the pan
• 2 Welsh onions (white part only), sliced thinly
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 medium to small red peppers (roasted and sliced)
• 1 can Swanson chicken stock
• 1/4 tsp. sugar
• 1/4 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper
• salt to taste
• 2-3 tbsp yogurt cheese*
• croutons for serving
  

Coat the bottom of a heavy-bottomed soup pot with the oil then cook the Welsh onions and garlic gloves over medium heat until softened. If they start to stick or burn, add a little water and lower the heat. Add the roasted red peppers and cook for about 5 more minutes. Add the chicken stock, salt, and pepper and heat to a boil then cover, turn the heat to low, and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Allow the soup to cool to the point where it is safe to handle in your blender, then put it in the blender and blitz it until it is smooth. Add the yogurt cheese and blitz it until the blend is smooth. Serve warm or cold with croutons.

I had this both warm and cold and slightly preferred it warm. I'm not sure how it'll reheat though given the yogurt component. I'd recommend only reheating it to a point of being barely hot. It's a very smooth soup with a velvety texture and probably could double as a sauce for chicken in a pinch.

*Yogurt cheese is plain yogurt which has been allowed to drain such that most of the whey has separated out. It is thick and resembles sour cream in texture and somewhat in flavor. I usually make it by suspending a coffee filter full of yogurt affixed to the top of a glass with a rubber band overnight.

by Shari (Orchid64)