Roasted red pepper soup

It seems to me that after posting the "it's January so here's a healthy smoothie" recipe, one must then prepare a steaming cup of homemade soup in an attempt to conquer the nasty winter weather that is plaguing most of the country (except for you, San Diego. Tell me all your secrets now!!!) And as it turns out, a batch of soup was exactly what I needed this week. Still full from too many holiday parties but chilled to the bone from running errands all over the city, I cooked up a giant batch of this roasted red pepper soup and was able to enjoy it for the next three days. This recipe is also completely customizable - the roasted cauliflower acts as a base from which you can create almost any flavor profile you wish. Don't like red peppers? Substitute broccoli. Not a fan of spicy? Cut out the cayenne flakes. Cutting down on dairy? Omit the cheese completely.

Ingredients
- 4 whole red bell peppers
- 1 full head of fresh cauliflower
- 3-4 cloves garlic
- 1 large onion
- 4 tbsp. olive oil
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- salt & pepper
- spices to taste: curry powder, red pepper flakes, cinnamon, parsley, Trader Joe's Everyday Seasoning
- 5 oz. feta cheese chunks

Tools
- 2 baking sheets
- Tin foil
- Knives - one large for chopping, one small for peeling
- Boiler/oven
- Ziplock bag
- Dutch oven (or other large stovetop pot)
- Immersion blender

How to
Wash and slice the red peppers in half. Gently score the outside of each pepper in anticipation of needing to later remove the skin. Remove any seeds from inside the peppers, and place face down on a baking sheet. Broil at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, or until tops are beginning to blacken.

Prep the cauliflower. Break off each floret into small pieces and place on a second baking sheet (cover your sheet with foil for easier clean up later).  Place each whole garlic clove on the sheet amongst the cauliflower. Toss the cauliflower and garlic with salt, pepper, and 1-2 tbsp. of olive oil.

When the peppers are roasted, remove them from the baking sheet and immediately place into a Ziplock bag; seal tightly. The idea here is to steam the peppers so that you will eventually be able to easily remove their skins.

Change your oven's setting from broil to bake, and preheat to 400 degrees. When the oven is heated, roast the cauliflower and garlic for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

When the peppers are cool to the touch, remove the skin. I found that some peppers were easier to skin than others, but using a small paring knife to peel each pepper eventually did the trick. Chop the peeled peppers into pieces approximately 1" in size.

Chop the onion. On the stovetop, heat the reaming olive oil (about 1-2 tbsp.) in the bottom of your dutch oven. Sauté the onion until golden brown.

Add the peppers, cauliflower, and garlic to the onions, and sauté for 1-2 more minutes. Add the vegetable broth and spices to the vegetables and bring to a boil. A quick note about the spices: I rarely measure when adding spices to my cooking, I simply add until I feel like I've achieved the desired taste. This is neither scientific nor consistent, and occasionally gets me in to trouble (case in point - I used way too much cayenne pepper for this particular batch of soup and had to tone it down with the feta cheese) but here's the thing - it's just soup. Try one spice blend this time around, and change it up next time!

Once the soup has come to a boil, turn the stove's flame down to it's lowest height (or just turn off the stove completely) and using your immersion blender, puree the vegetables until you've reached your desired soup consistency. Be careful because the contents of the pot will be very hot, and any splashes from the blender can be painful. If the soup is too thick, add more vegetable broth a 1/2 cup at a time to thin it out. Add the feta cheese and blend again until that too is fully incorporated.

Cover and simmer your now-pureed soup for 10-15 minutes. When ready, serve with a hearty chunk of fresh bread (I used this recipe for no-knead bread and was thrilled with the results).

Inspiration for this soup came from here!

Butternut pear soup

So there was this one time when I worked really, really, really hard on a very big project for a good long while and when it was over, I jumped in a car and headed upstate with friends in search of All Things Fall. The resulting day was one of near-perfection. We drove through a countryside blazing with color. We took a hayride through an apple orchard. We ate corn on the cob straight from the grill and apple cider donuts that were fresh out of the deep fryer. We went horseback riding, picked fresh flowers from a field, heard not one but two different live bands, and drank mulled wine in a treehouse as I suffered what might be the biggest loss in the history of the (card) game of Hearts. And knowing that no iconic autumn day would be complete without a souvenir, we purchased fresh fruit and veggies from a farm stand.

The next day, I took those same fruits and veggies, chopped them up, roasted them, and turned the whole thing into a hearty fall soup. Admittedly, there's not a whole lot that's special about this soup. I'm not the first person to add pears to butternut squash, or to use a whole bunch of cinnamon, curry powder, and fresh ginger, or to omit any sort of dairy so that the bowl of goodness is actually good for you. But when I eat a spoonful of this soup, I don't taste just any old squash or any old pears - I taste the hours of hard work that it takes to successfully run a small farm. I taste the local soil, knowing that my food came from just a few hours away. I taste the same sun and rain that fell on my own balcony garden. I may be waxing a little too locavore poetic, but I just can't help it - something about making an actual farm-to-table meal stirs something within me. I may be over-exaggerating just a little, but this soup is really, really good.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Pear Soup

Ingredients
- 1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cubed
- 3 ripe pears, peeled and cubed
- 1/2 onion, diced
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 6 cups vegetable stock
- approx. 1/4" fresh ginger, diced
- Olive oil - 1 tbsp + 2 tbsp
- Spices to taste: salt and pepper, rosemary, cinnamon, curry powder

Instruments
- Large knife
- Cookie sheet
- Oven, stove
- 8-quart dutch oven*
- Immersion blender*

How to
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. On a cookie sheet, evenly lay out the cubed butternut squash and (whole) cloves of garlic, and coat with salt, pepper, and 1 tbsp of olive oil. Roast the squash and garlic in the oven for 30 minutes.

Heat the remaining oil in the dutch oven. Add the onions, garlic, and ginger, and sauté until the onions are golden brown. Add the pears, roasted squash, vegetable stock, and spices, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer on low for 15-20 minutes (the longer you simmer, the more robust the flavors will be). Using your immersion blender, carefully blend all the ingredients until creamy. Do take caution though! Hot liquid may splash out of the pot, which is never fun. If you find your soup is too thick, add more vegetable stock (1/2 cup at a time) until you've reached your desired constancy. Stirring occasionally, simmer for another 5-10 minutes, then remove from heat and ladle into a bowl.

*Affiliate link

Chilled Summer Squash Soup

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine was out of town and unable to pick up her Farm Share/CSA for the week - so she gifted it to me! I received a ton of beautiful, leafy greens (seriously, I came home with like 8 different bunches), a handful of garlic scapes, and four mid-sized summer squash. The greens went right into a huge 4th of July salad, and a few days later I turned the squash into a yummy chilled soup. Stay cool!

Chilled Summer Squash Soup
Ingredients 
4 summer squash, peeled and sliced
1 garlic scape, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 celery ribs, diced
14 oz vegetable broth
8 oz sweet corn, drained
Spices to taste - thyme, rosemary, salt, pepper

How to
Lay the squash slices on a cookie sheet and coat with olive oil and salt. Roast at 425 degrees for about 10-15 minutes. In the meantime and in a large pot, saute the onions, celery and garlic scapes in the remaining olive oil until brown and tender. Add the roasted squash, vegetable broth and spices and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover with a lid, and simmer the vegetables for 20-25 minutes, or until ingredients are tender. Using an immersion blender, blend the soup until smooth. Add the corn, let simmer for another 5-10 minutes, then remove from heat and transfer into smaller bowls that can be refrigerated. Chill for 3-4 hours, serve cold.