Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Bisque

Soup season has hit with full force. And if it weren't for the snow and the miserable cold winds that take your breath away, I would be totally fine with that. I love soup. If I am not sure what I want to eat, I will usually throw together a soup of sorts and it ends up being exactly what I wanted after all. I think part of the reason I love soups are because they are easy to make, are perfect for a one-container-lunch, and it's a handy way to sneak in leftovers that you may have sitting around. For this recipe, my boyfriend had bought too many tomatoes and I needed a quick way to use them up before they became unusable. Soup to the rescue!

Broiling the red pepper and fresh tomatoes adds an extra depth of flavour that just can't be replicated if you skip it. I added a can of diced tomatoes to help bulk out the soup and help the cost factor, but you could easily double the fresh tomatoes and roast them as well for an even more pronounced roasted flavour that I am sure would be amazing. Heck, if you've got an extra bell pepper hanging around, throw that in too! The roasting itself a little fussy and requires a little more prep time, but I promise the end result is worth it.

I also keep a medium sized freezer bag in my freezer for vegetable scraps I collect as I cook. Every few weeks it is full enough for a new batch of vegetable stock. I made my own stock for this recipe using onion, carrot, and celery scraps simmered with bay leaves and peppercorns for around 45 minutes. It's a fantastic way to make something useful out of what was just going to go into compost/trash, since it's virtually free. You can make vegetable stock with just about any leftover vegetable scraps, but I tend to steer away from stronger flavours such as peppers, kale, broccoli, and the like. And you can't go wrong with the classic triad of celery, onion, and carrot. However, in lieu of fresh vegetable stock for this recipe, you can easily substitute prepared vegetable or chicken stock.

Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Bisque
Author: Amanda
Serves 6+
Difficulty: easy

Ingredients

• 5 tomatoes on the vine
• 1 red bell pepper
• vegetable oil, for broiling
• 1 28oz/796mL can diced tomatoes
• 1 yellow onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3.5 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup heavy cream
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions
Wash the bell pepper and tomatoes, slice in half and place sliced-side-down onto a baking sheet lined with foil. Brush the exposed skins with vegetable oil, and broil on high until skins are blackened and bubbly. Remove vegetables from tray when cool, peel, and roughly chop. Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat and saute onions and garlic until soft, about 5 minutes. Add peeled peppers, tomatoes, can of diced tomatoes, and vegetable broth. Simmer for 15 minutes and use an immersion blender to puree soup. If not using an immersion blender, blend in small batches with a towel over the blender and return to pot on low heat. Add heavy cream, salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste. Turn off heat when heated through and serve.

Step-by-Step Photos

Wash your produce and slice the pepper and tomatoes in half, place face down on a foiled baking sheet, and brush with vegetable oil. The oil helps to ensure a more even roasting and also helps speed up the process. If the pepper membranes (white part) are easy to pull out, you can do that here too. Otherwise, you can do it after they are roasted.

Broil on high in the oven. Every oven is different, so you will have to keep a fairly close eye on the vegetables. I ended up broiling mine for about 10 minutes.

Once blackened and starting to bubble, remove the vegetables from the broiler and allow to cool. I probably could have left mine in the broiler for a couple more minutes, but I am impatient. It's a character flaw that often finds its way into my cooking escapades.

While the peppers and tomatoes are broiling and cooling, dice the onion and mince the garlic.

Once the tomatoes and peppers have cooled, you can peel them. I found the tomato skins peeled off like a dream compared to the peppers, so just do the best you can. Discard the skins and give the flesh a rough chop.

Melt the butter in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, and add the onions and garlic once the butter is foamy.

After the onions and garlic have softened and are fragrant, add the skinned and chopped peppers and tomatoes to the pot, as well as the can of diced tomatoes in their juices.

Add the vegetable stock, and bring to a simmer (small bubbles breaking the surface).

Simmer, partially covered, for about 15 minutes. Remember to stir occasionally.

After the soup has simmered, remove the cover and turn off the heat prior to blending.

Blend soup until no large chunks remain. I adore my immersion blender and use it often, but if you only have a regular blender, here's a guide from America's Test Kitchen on how to blend your soup safely.

Stir in the heavy cream. I used full-blown whipping cream for this soup, but I had it leftover from a previous recipe. I wouldn't use anything less than 18% cream (coffee cream) in the soup, because the acidity of the tomatoes can make it curdle. I have tried making tomato soups before with half-and-half, and it always curdles. It still tastes really good, but it will look grainy. The fat content prevents the curdling even when reheating the leftovers. It's worth it.

Add salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste. I put cayenne or crushed red pepper in EVERYTHING. Some may consider it another character flaw. I ended up adding 1 teaspoon of salt, but I also left my vegetable stock fairly unsalted so I could perfect the salt to my taste. You may not need any if you are using prepared stock.

Serve.