2 leeks, rinsed and greens discarded, white part divided and thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
6 sun-dried tomatoes
3 cups vegetable broth
½ teaspoon paprika
⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ cup fresh basil leaves
kosher salt
black pepper
Serve with:
fresh basil leaves
pesto
Takes ,
serves 8.
Instructions
Preheat barbecue or grill to 500°F. If using the oven, please refer to grilling section in above story for instructions.
Roast the peppers: Rub peppers with olive oil and place on grill. Close lid and cook for 5 minutes. Turn the peppers, close the lid and repeat. Grill in this fashion for about 20 minutes or until the peppers are blackened and the skin is bubbled. Immediately transfer to a stainless steel bowl, covering bowl tightly with foil. Leave peppers to sit for 15 minutes.
Peel and seed peppers: Peel darkened skin away from peppers. Cut peppers open and gently remove the seeds. Discard caps, seeds and skin. Roughly chop flesh.
Prepare the soup: Place medium-sized pot on stovetop over moderate or medium heat. Add oil. When the oil is shimmering add the leeks, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes. Cook until leeks and garlic have softened, about three minutes. Stir in paprika and cayenne pepper, then add peppers and tomatoes cooking for 2 minutes more. Add broth and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer, cover and cook for 10 minutes. Remove soup from heat and bring to work station, add basil, and purée using an immersion blender or conventional blender with the cap removed and the lid covered with a clean dishcloth. Purée soup to desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
To serve: Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with fresh basil and/or a dollop of homemade pesto. Serve with rustic garlic bread.
Roasted Red Pepper Soup
Ingredients
2 pounds of red peppers, about 4
28 ounces canned roasted or crushed tomatoes
2 leeks, rinsed and greens discarded, white part divided and thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
6 sun-dried tomatoes
3 cups vegetable broth
½ teaspoon paprika
⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ cup fresh basil leaves
kosher salt
black pepper
Serve with:
fresh basil leaves
pesto
Directions
Preheat barbecue or grill to 500°F. If using the oven, please refer to grilling section in above story for instructions.
Roast the peppers: Rub peppers with olive oil and place on grill. Close lid and cook for 5 minutes. Turn the peppers, close the lid and repeat. Grill in this fashion for about 20 minutes or until the peppers are blackened and the skin is bubbled. Immediately transfer to a stainless steel bowl, covering bowl tightly with foil. Leave peppers to sit for 15 minutes.
Peel and seed peppers: Peel darkened skin away from peppers. Cut peppers open and gently remove the seeds. Discard caps, seeds and skin. Roughly chop flesh.
Prepare the soup: Place medium-sized pot on stovetop over moderate or medium heat. Add oil. When the oil is shimmering add the leeks, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes. Cook until leeks and garlic have softened, about three minutes. Stir in paprika and cayenne pepper, then add peppers and tomatoes cooking for 2 minutes more. Add broth and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer, cover and cook for 10 minutes. Remove soup from heat and bring to work station, add basil, and purée using an immersion blender or conventional blender with the cap removed and the lid covered with a clean dishcloth. Purée soup to desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
To serve: Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with fresh basil and/or a dollop of homemade pesto. Serve with rustic garlic bread.
Roasted Red Pepper Soup
5 / 5. 2
Roasted red peppers and tomatoes, flavoured with leeks, garlic and fresh basil, served puréed with a dollop of pesto…
Soup’s on, and this ROASTED RED PEPPER SOUP is sure to please!
Our recipe for this delicious ROASTED RED PEPPER SOUP checks off all the boxes. It all started a few months back with an early morning chain of calls and texts with two of my sisters. I wanted a recipe for a healthy vegetarian soup, and the idea of red peppers was bandied about. Within hours, we were on to something exceptionally flavourful that was pretty easy to make too!
What makes this red pepper soup recipe so good?
It’s 100% vegetarian.
We crafted our recipe to be both gluten-free and dairy-free.
This soup requires a short cooking time.
It pairs perfectly with salads, sandwiches, and grilled cheese.
Before we share this easy homemade soup idea, how about a request? Please remember to PIN this recipe on a favourite Pinterest soup or vegetarian recipe board. We’d also love it if you’d SHARE this post with friends. We appreciate seeing pics whenever you make our recipes, so use #weekendatthecottage when you post your photos on Facebook and Instagram. Thanks for sharing with the world!
Here’s how to make this tasty ROASTED RED PEPPER SOUP.
INGREDIENTS
Everything needed to make this soup recipe is readily available at your local grocery store or farmstead. Try to purchase organic red peppers, leeks and fresh basil, if possible. We always find locally grown fresh vegetables, fruit and herbs to taste better. The same goes for the vegetable broth, sometimes labelled vegetable stock, and the canned tomatoes. If homemade options are available, this is definitely a recipe to use them. Head HERE if you’d like an easy tutorial on making vegetable broth from scratch using leftover vegetables like onion, celery and carrots. If the vegetarian element isn’t a necessity, you can also use chicken broth in a pinch.
RED PEPPERS
No two ways about it, this soup is all about RED PEPPERS. In crafting the recipe, we used both red bell peppers and shepherd peppers. Both varieties are similar in colour and level of sweetness, but the shepherd peppers are often larger in size, making them easier to prepare. Peppers are a super healthy choice, packed with tons of nutrients, including vitamin A, potassium and fibre. Of special note, sweet peppers are very high in vitamin C, to the point of being up there with oranges, kiwi and guavas.
THE GRILL
If there’s one finicky or time-consuming portion of this made-from-scratch soup recipe, it’s grilling and peeling the peppers. Grilling them involves roasting them on a hot grill for about 20 minutes, turning them occasionally. The goal is to blacken and blister the skin of the peppers. If you’ve never cooked peppers this way before, fear not, it’s easy. Let’s say you don’t have a grill or barbecue; simply place the greased peppers on a large baking sheet and roast them in a hot oven (450°F) for 30 minutes, turning them every 5 minutes or so.
REST PERIOD
This is important! Peeling the peppers for the soup will take a bit of effort, but it’s made much easier when the peppers have “steamed” for a bit in a bowl covered with foil. Simply transfer the grilled or oven-baked peppers to a bowl as soon as they’re finished. Cover the bowl with foil, leaving the peppers to steam for 15 minutes or longer. This causes the skin to shrivel from the flesh, making the peeling and seeding of the peppers much easier.
MAKING THE SOUP
Making the soup itself is also straightforward, where we sauté leeks, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes to build a flavourful base. We then add seasoning, crushed tomatoes, grilled peppers and broth and cook for a bit. Spoiler alert! The cottage kitchen was filled with enticing aromas while the soup cooked. It’s a great weekend recipe if you and your guests are lounging about over a fall or winter getaway.
PUREE
The final step in the preparation of this recipe is to add fresh basil to the soup pot before puréeing it into a creamy roasted red pepper soup. You can blend it using either an immersion blender or a conventional one. If using a conventional blender, please remember to remove the cap from the lid and cover the hole with a clean dish towel, allowing the steam to escape without incident. Time to purchase a new blender? I’ve listed some great options at the bottom of this post.
SERVE
This lovely soup recipe is also an incredibly flexible one that can be served for brunch, lunch or dinner, as an appetizer, first course or main. We suggest adding an additional pop of basil flavouring by adding a dollop of HOMEMADE PESTO right before the fresh basil garnish. If you’d like to keep the recipe dairy-free, omit the pesto as it contains cheese.
Cook Mode Use cook mode to keep your screen on while cooking.
Ingredients
2 pounds of red peppers, about 4
28 ounces canned roasted or crushed tomatoes
2 leeks, rinsed and greens discarded, white part divided and thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
6 sun-dried tomatoes
3 cups vegetable broth
½ teaspoon paprika
⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ cup fresh basil leaves
kosher salt
black pepper
Serve with:
fresh basil leaves
pesto
Directions
Preheat barbecue or grill to 500°F. If using the oven, please refer to grilling section in above story for instructions.
Roast the peppers: Rub peppers with olive oil and place on grill. Close lid and cook for 5 minutes. Turn the peppers, close the lid and repeat. Grill in this fashion for about 20 minutes or until the peppers are blackened and the skin is bubbled. Immediately transfer to a stainless steel bowl, covering bowl tightly with foil. Leave peppers to sit for 15 minutes.
Peel and seed peppers: Peel darkened skin away from peppers. Cut peppers open and gently remove the seeds. Discard caps, seeds and skin. Roughly chop flesh.
Prepare the soup: Place medium-sized pot on stovetop over moderate or medium heat. Add oil. When the oil is shimmering add the leeks, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes. Cook until leeks and garlic have softened, about three minutes. Stir in paprika and cayenne pepper, then add peppers and tomatoes cooking for 2 minutes more. Add broth and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer, cover and cook for 10 minutes. Remove soup from heat and bring to work station, add basil, and purée using an immersion blender or conventional blender with the cap removed and the lid covered with a clean dishcloth. Purée soup to desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
To serve: Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with fresh basil and/or a dollop of homemade pesto. Serve with rustic garlic bread.
