Red Pepper Soup

Rating: Easy! Fun!


This is another easy but great soup. I find it fun, because it's not very often that you get to peel the skin off of your peppers! You can use a food processor or blender to process the soup in the final stages, but I definitely recommend using a food processor if you have one. You will also want to process the soup in batches to avoid making a big mess if it spells over! The pesto is delicious, again, if you feel like adding a vegan parmesan ingredient. You can skip the pesto and it still makes a great soup. If you like your soup a little less thick, you may want to add slightly more vegetable stock.

1. Red Pepper Soup

2 medium red peppers
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
400g or about 1 3/4 cups of canned tomato with juice
3 cups vegetable stock
1 teaspoon lemon zest
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons sugar
salt and pepper

2. Pesto (optional)
1 1/2 cups coriander leaves, chopped
1 1/2 cups parsley, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup cashews, rinsed and chopped
1/2 cup vegan parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons olive oil

1. Rinse red peppers, cut in half, and clean out insides.
2. Set oven to Broil (500 f).
3. Place down (with outside skin facing UP) on foil on a baking sheet. Spray top of pepper halves with oil. Place in oven until the skins blister and turn black - five to ten minutes. Pay careful attention. This will allow you to peel off the outer layer of the skin.
4. Remove pepper halves, and place in an airtight container or bag and leave for five minutes or until cool. Remove the skins (you can peel them off at this point), and coarsely chop.
5. Heat oil and sauté onion and garlic over gentle heat in a large saucepan for about 3 minutes.
6. Add pepper, tomatoes (with juice) and vegetable stock.
7. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
8. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar, salt and pepper.
9. Blend soup, in food processor or blender, in batches until smooth or almost smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
10. If you choose to make the pesto, add all of the pesto ingredients to a food processor except for the oil. Process and add oil gradually until you have slightly more of a thick sauce rather than a paste.

Serve soup into bowls and garnish with pesto.