Healthy Eating with Chili Peppers: Spicy Roast Tomato and Pepper Soup
This is a relatively easy soup to make that is healthy and tasty, and delivers a kick. And once you have made it, you will never go back to the canned stuff again.
Ingredients:
6 to 8 Tomatoes (or more, see comment below)
2 to 4 Red Jalapenos
6 to 8 Sweet Peppers or 1 Medium Red Bell Pepper
1 Medium Sweet Onion
4 to 6 Garlic Cloves
1 to 2 Tablespoons Chili Oil
Chicken or Vegetable Broth
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
1 to 2 Tablespoons Honey
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. For the tomatoes, I like to use an assortment such as Roma, vine-ripe, heirloom, cherry, etc. But you can use whatever you have in the fridge or whatever is seasonal at the time you make the soup.
Spread the oil on a baking pan. Cut the larger tomatoes in half and arrange them in the pan skin-side up (the smaller tomatoes do not need to be cut). Cut the onion in half and set it in the pan skin-side up, and do the same if you are using a bell pepper. Arrange the chili peppers and garlic cloves in the pan.
Place the pan in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes, until the tomatoes and peppers are blistered. You will want to turn the sweet peppers and jalapeños after about 15 minutes. You can also do the roasting on the grill or a smoker, if preferred.
Remove the vegetables from the oven and transfer them to a soup pot (along with any of the liquid that has accumulated in the pan). If you did not peel the garlic before cooking, be sure to peel it at this point.
Add enough broth to cover the vegetables by about one inch and bring to a boil. Using an immersion blender, blend the soup until it reaches a smooth consistency. Add the Worcestershire sauce, honey, and a touch of salt and pepper, and simmer for a few minutes. If a thicker consistency is desired, you can simmer long to reduce.
At this point, you have the base soup, and you can adjust it to your preferences. For the soup pictured above, I added some cumin (½ teaspoon) and paprika (1 teaspoon) with the other seasonings. I then topped it with diced avocado and chopped cilantro and served it with a three-cheese grilled cheese sandwich (smoked Gouda, blue cheese, and pepper jack).
Another option is to chop up some artichoke hearts and add those to the soup, and I will also add about a tablespoon of crushed Calabrian chilis. Some sun-dried tomatoes would be good in there as well. You could also top the base soup with chopped olive mix and feta cheese and serve it with grilled flatbread. And there are plenty of other variations you could try as well.
If you don’t have chili oil, then run out and buy some because that is good stuff. But in the meantime, you can substitute hot sauce or extra jalapeños to kick up the heat. Following the directions and ingredients about, this will come to about Medium heat on my scale, and you can adjust accordingly.
