Friday, March 28, 2014

Roasted Red Pepper Soup - Blended

So I got a fancy new toy last week, a fancy new blender! I've been wanting it forever, and have consumed my weight in samples from the Costco demonstrator for it. One of it's tricks is to make HOT soup, with cold ingredients, so here's one of the first soups I tried. I used this recipe (healthy-delicious.com) and this recipe (Vitamix, official) as inspiration.

I started with 6 red bell peppers. Wash thoroughly and slice in half. I roasted these for about 45 minutes at 400 degrees.
I don't know about your family, but I sneak vegetables into dinner. Whatever is left over in your fridge, chop them up! I used a small wedge of cabbage, a medium onion, and 3.5 carrots.
 
Heat oil in a pan (in my case, a wok) and saute the vegetables until they're golden and tender starting with the thicker vegetables first (carrots) and adding the others in throughout. I then added 2 scoops of minced garlic for good measure and let them cook a few minutes longer.

(Sorry, I'm technology inclined, and I can't figure out how to get this photo to rotate!)

I used some shredded cheese I had and spread it on a silicone baking sheet. Two of the piles are dairy & soy-free Daiya cheese, because my toddler daughter has MPI and my son (who is breastfed) has MSPI and we cannot have cow's milk/cheese.
Then add to the oven with the roasting peppers for about 15 minutes (don't worry, my oven is not always that clean, this is a fluke). Watch the cheese carefully, it will bubble, and the oil will come out, and you want to pull it out right as it starts to turn brown.

Layer all the cooked ingredients, minus the cheese, some chicken broth (I used two pint glasses of water and a scoop of chicken bouillon powder), salt, and pepper. I also added a couple scoops of chia seeds, because they are SO GOOD for you. (Do you know all the benefits of chia seeds?) BLEND! Here is the Before and After.

Add a scoop of heavy cream (I scooped from a can of refrigerated coconut cream), add some parsley to make it pretty, put cheese crisps on top, and serve with a sandwich. Instant yum.









Summary of ingredients:
Roasted bell peppers
Randomly sautteed vegetables (cabbage, carrots, onion)
Minced garlic
Chicken broth (or use Vegetable broth, for vegan)
Salt and pepper
Chia seeds
Shredded cheese
Cream
Parsley (for decoration)


This soup was super easy, delicious, and I'm happy with how I was able to turn it into a beautiful presentation with practical garnish! Let me know if you try it out, and what kind of variations you do!

1 comment:

  1. I LOVE your take on this soup! And you'll love your new Vitamix... I got one earlier this year and it's amazing. I hardly ever used my old blender, but that has definitely changed. :)

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