Subject: VEGAN: Roasted Pepper Soup

From: [email-masked] (James Putnam)
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 1994 23:01:15 GMT

Roasted Pepper Soup
    -------------------

    I've done this several times. Some people like it over pasta (a bit thin 
    for my tastes, but de gustibus non dispudandum, etc). Makes soup for four, 
    with a nominal amount left over. It does seem to age well, in that it is 
    subjectively better after an eight hour stint in the refrigerator than 
    right out of the pot. I have only tried this with the sweetish Bell variety
    of pepper, there are other varieties that might be more interesting.

    A warning here: the process requires a blender, and unless you are 
    extremely careful and neat, you'll end up looking like somebody bled 
    copiously all over your kitchen, lending a sort of manic, operating-room-
    gone-amok air to the proceedings.

    Ingredients:

	Three large red Bell peppers, intact

	24 oz. can of stewed tomato
	12 oz. can of tomato sauce
	 8 oz. can of tomato paste

	Several roma tomatos

	    If you like something with a little more spice, buy the sauce
	    and/or paste with added stuff. They typically are labeled "Italian 
	    Style", and have basil, oregano, etc. Alternatively, you can add 
	    your own spices.

	1 cup of double-strength vegetable broth

	    Actually, this is the toughest part. I tried several different
	    ways of getting vegetable broth, and finally ended up with Knorr's 
	    broth cubes.

	sherry, optional, not much.

    Process:

    Roast the peppers. This involves broiling the living daylights out of them 
    on a wire rack in a roasting pan.

    Roast them until they turn black. If you haven't done this before, it is 
    a skill well worth learning. Turn them every once in a while, until the 
    skin blisters and blackens. Blacken them pretty much all over, and put 
    them in a plastic bag to cool. If you don't blacken them well, it'll be 
    tough to take the skin off afterward. Don't burn or char them.

    While you are doing the roasting, mix the tomato products and the 
    vegetable broth in a large pot and simmer. Cut up the roma tomatoes into 
    manageable chunks and put them in with the rest. Cook until tender, and
    turn off the heat.

    When the peppers are cool enough to handle, take the skin off (it'll peel 
    off in patches), and remove the stems and seeds (down to stems and seeds, 
    again) and any tissue that looks unappetizing. Don't feel like you have to 
    make them pristine, you'll just be grinding them into mush, which is the 
    next step.

    (If you stop here with the peppers, you can slice them, drizzle a little 
    olive oil on them, add salt and pepper to taste, and serve them as a side 
    dish. Some people find the texture revolting^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hinteresting.)

    When the tomato stock is still warm, but cool enough to handle, divide
    it into blender volume portions, and process each through the blender 
    with the remains of a pepper. You could use a food processor, but it would
    take longer, unless you've got a large capacity machine. 

    Process the pepper and tomato stock until it reaches a reasonable texture,
    which for my blender is somewhere between ten and fifteen seconds on the
    "puree" setting. You'd like your soup to have a little texture, but still
    be relatively homogeneous. A firm hand on the blender lid is a Good Thing.

    Return the pepper-tomato mixture to the pot, carefully measuring in a tot
    of sherry, to taste. I do this by adding about an ounce of dry sherry. Me
    aged grandmums does this by upending the bottle and shouting "yeeeee-haw",
    and returning the bottle to its original, upright position at the voicing
    of the terminal syllable. Grandmums is a bit of a character. Heat for a 
    short time, to drive off the worst of the sherry volatiles, and 
    refrigerate overnight.

    Reheat gently, sprinkle with optional parmesan cheese or sour cream, and 
    serve.