Roasted Red Pepper Soup

One of my favorite soups is Roasted Red Pepper Soup, it's healthy, easy to make and full of flavor. It's so much cheaper to buy a glut of red peppers from the local market, along with the vegetables. You can use homemade chicken stock or stock cubes, both present a beautiful soup, and by adding the basil right at the end of cooking means you can taste it. Once it's cool, it's ideal for freezing.

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Makes 5 pints/2.8 litres soup
Prep Time 30 mins
Cooking Time 50 mins approx

Ingredients

6 Red (bell) peppers
3 Pints/1.7 litres water
2 Chicken stock cubes
4 Medium carrots, washed and finely chopped
4 Sticks celery, washed and finely chopped
2 Medium potatoes, peeled and finely chopped
2 Medium red onions, peeled and finely chopped
4 Large garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 Tin 400g Chopped tomatoes
Large handful of fresh basil, roughly chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Cut the peppers in half and take out the stalks and deseed

Brush with a little olive oil and season with rock salt and freshly ground black pepper

Lay the peppers on a baking tray and bake in a preheated oven 180°C/350°F/Gas mark 4 for 20 minutes

Remove peppers from oven and place on a grill rack (skin side up) and put under a preheated grill until skins turn black ( push the peppers down firmly on the grill rack to ensure all the skin is exposed to the heat, this will make it easier to pull off the black skin)

Allow to cool a little, then pull off as much of the black skin as possible. If there is still some skin left, just put the peppers into a plastic bag, seal and leave for 15 minutes to sweat, slice them into quarters, this will make it easier to remove the skin

Chop the peppers finely and set aside

Place the carrots, celery, potatoes, onion and garlic into a heavy saucepan and add the water and stock cubes, ( I just blitz all the vegetables into tiny pieces with a hand held blender)

Bring to the boil and cook for 3-4 minutes, then turn down the heat and simmer for 30 minutes until the vegetables are tender

Now add the tomatoes, chopped peppers and simmer for another 10-15minutes

Remove from the heat and add the basil and season well

Use a hand held blender or food processor and blitz until you have a thick soup

Serve with a spoonful of low fat crème fraiche

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