Spicy red pepper and sweet paprika soup
Rich, vibrant, thick, and creamy, a warming soup is perfect for these cold 'almost winter' days. Home-made soup is really easy to make, and the best thing is that you can make up your own combinations of flavours. With good quality ingredients soup takes no time at all to make, especially if you have a soup maker.
Make the best of the bargains you see in the supermarket, or better still your local farm shop or greengrocer, and buy seasonal vegetables, or those on offer.
Whether you use a soup maker to do the work for you, or manually cook your soup and then blend with a stick (immersion) blender is up to you. I used a soup maker by Judge Cookware and the result was excellent. Soup can be frozen too, so you always have some ready for for lunch on those lazy do nothing days.
I roasted some red bell peppers and red onions, since once roasted they give soup a lovely sweet flavour which is delicious.
To serve four you will need:
Four red bell peppers - leave the skin on sliced into 3cm strips
Two medium sized red onions - cut into quarters
Olive oil
600ml water
One and a half Knorr chicken stock cubes - you can of course use vegetable if you prefer
Two teaspoons of sweet paprika
A pinch of black pepper
Half a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
A small pinch of dried red chilli flakes
Cream to drizzle before serving
What to do:
Preheat your oven to 230C/450F or gas mark eight
1) Spread the chopped peppers and onions evenly over a baking tray - be sure to leave the skin on the peppers. Drizzle them with a little olive oil, and use your hand to coat and turn the peppers so they are skin side up.
2) Pop the tray on the middle shelf of the oven, and leave to roast for about 20 minutes. Turn them over and then pop them back in for another 10-15 minutes. Once the peppers are done their skins will have started to blacken.
3) Tip the vegetables onto a plate, cover with cling film, and leave to cool. Once they are cool enough to handle, remove the skin from the peppers.
4) If you are using a soup maker add the cooked peppers and onions to it, along with all the other ingredients. Select 'smooth soup' and set it to cook. Your soup will be made for you and blended in just 20 minutes.
Have a taste and adjust the seasoning to your taste. Serve while still hot and drizzle with a little cream - if you want to be all fancy that is!
If you're cooking soup on the hob follow the recipe to step three, and then make up your stock using boiling water to dissolve the seasoning. Pop everything into a large saucepan and bring to the boil, and then simmer the soup for 30 minutes or so. Leave to cool and then carefully blend with a stick blender. Reheat before eating.
The original post can be viewed here.
