Sweet Pepper Soup and Herb Parmesan Crostini

I have not been a huge soup person in the past and have only made soup at home once in a while.  The weather has officially turned cool and I've been craving soup lately. I have made three soups in the last three weeks.  The first was a butternut squash soup from Cooking Light.  It was ok, but I didn't deem it blogworthy.  The second soup was chicken noodle from Cook's Illustrated.  A good solid soup, but I forgot to photograph it.  Guess that means I have to make it again.  And the third soup was this sweet pepper soup.  You will notice that I didn't reference a recipe source for this one, because it was really an amalgmation of a few recipes I came across and I'm going to deem this one my own since it was vastly different from any of the individual recipes.   

What I love about all this soup making is how easy it is.  Especially since I am not making my own stock and using store bought stock or chicken base and water.  I've been making the soup the night before we want to have it for dinner.  I have noticed this extra time allows the soup flavors to develop overnight making it even better the next day. 

I created this soup out of necessity of not wanting to waste 6 sweet bell peppers sitting in my fridge for over a week.  I was very happy with the result.  Hubby said this soup would be great with a grilled cheese sandwich and I have to agree.  We had the soup with herb parmesan crusted crostini which is great to dip in and soak up all the sweet pepper goodness.

Enjoy!


Sweet Pepper Soup

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large sweet onion, chopped into a medium dice
2 small carrots, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces (about 1/2 cup)
4 large garlic cloves, cut in quarters
1/4 cup dry white wine
6 sweet bell peppers, seeds and stems removed and chopped into 1 inch pieces
3 cups water
4 teaspoons chicken base (if you are using chicken broth instead, use 3 cups of low sodium broth)
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
8 large basil leaves plus extra for garnish
2 tablespoons tomato paste
Salt and pepper to taste
Sour cream and feta cheese to top soup

In a dutch oven or large pot, heat olive oil on medium high heat and saute the onion, carrots and garlic until the onions are cooked, about 8 minutes.  Add wine and cook on high until only about a tablespoon of wine remains.  Add peppers, water, chicken base, red pepper flakes, basil and tomato paste.  Season generously with salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to low and simmer for about 30 minutes until peppers are tender.  Use an immersion blender to puree the soup.  Alternatively, use a blender or food processor to puree the soup in batches.  Strain soup into a large bowl using a fine mesh strainer.  Don't skip this step if you like a smooth soup to strain out the skin from the peppers.  Serve with a small dollop of sour cream, a sprinkle of feta and freshly torn basil. 


Herb Parmesan Crostini

Ingredients:

1 baguettte
1/2 cup coarsely grated or chopped parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 1/2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoon fresh chives, minced (optional)
fresh cracked black pepper to taste

Preheat  oven to 375 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment. 

Cut baguette on the diagonal crosswise into 1/4 thick slices.  Mix all ingredients together and lightly spread cheese mixture onto the slices and place face up on the baking sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Turn the oven to broil and bake for an additional 2-3 minutes until crostini is golden brown.

44-Clove Garlic Soup

Hubby and I started a monthly tradition last month that we are calling "Mystery Dinner".  Around the first weekend of each month, one of us is responsible for choosing a menu.  That person is the "executive chef" and the other is "sous chef".  It's a way for us to explore new dishes we've never made while working together in the kitchen (something that doesn't happen very often). It's fun, it's relaxing and there's a payoff where we get to enjoy a delicious meal along with good company at the end of the evening. 

Mystery Dinner has a few rules.

1. The spouse choosing the menu has to get approval on all menu items from the other spouse before moving forward.
2. The meal must have at least 2 courses.
3. Each component should be something we've never made before or should have some level of complexity (i.e., no hamburger helper).
4. And most importantly, a bottle of wine must be consumed during the making and eating of the meal along with good music playing in the background.

Hubby hosted our September dinner.  He's so cute, he has this box of recipe cards that he acquired when he was just out of high school.  The kind where you subscribe and they send you cards in the mail once a month.  I think his aunt actually signed him up for the cards, but Hubs got into them. He started cooking for his dad and he's been toting the box around ever since.  His recipe box is one of the few items that survived the merging of our stuff when we moved in together back in the day.  So for Hubby's first Mystery Dinner, he broke out his trusty recipe box from the back of the cupboard and dusted it off (literally). 

He picked out a chicken dish with sauteed orange and yellow peppers and a delicious white wine sauce, cream cheese popovers and brownies for dessert.  Overall the meal was a success...but it was not without a few mishaps.  We had to make the popover batter twice because the first time it was separated and kind of gross looking.  And as our brownie batter was waiting to go in the oven I suddenly realized we never added any butter.  Whoops!  So I melted the butter and stirred it in.  The brownies fared pretty well despite the almost flub.  Actually, the flubs made it fun.  We got to have a few laughs, some wine and we were in no hurry, so we just meandered through making the meal until it was done. 

Here's a peek at our first Mystery Dinner.

This month was my turn to plan the menu and we made 44-clove garlic soup with Parmesan cheese, fillet of beef tenderloin with horseradish cream, homemade dinner rolls (that didn't get baked until the next day) and creme brulee for dessert.  With the exception of the dinner rolls, the  meal was a big hit! 

Let's talk soup.

No joke, this soup indeed has 44 cloves of garlic (which is about 3 heads of garlic).  Two-thirds of the garlic gets roasted until soft and sweet and the remaining garlic gets simmered in the soup.  Once it all comes together, it gets pureed into a smooth silky deliciousness.  We used an immersion blender to do the pureeing--a pretty cool kitchen tool, by the way. Even though this soup has an insane amount of garlic, it has a mild, almost sweet garlic flavor.  I absolutely loved it.  And so did Hubby.  The only thing I would add is a nice crisp Parmesan herb crusted crostada to float on top to slowly drink in all that amazing garlic heaven.   Good stuff!

44-Clove Garlic Soup with Parmesan Cheese
adapted from Bon Appetit via Smitten Kitchen

Serves 4

26 garlic cloves unpeeled
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter (1/4 stick)
2 1/4 cups sliced onions (about 1 large onion)
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
18 garlic cloves peeled
3 1/2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese (about 2 ounces)
4 lemon wedges

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Place the 26 cloves of garlic in small baking dish.  Toss the garlic with 2 tablespoons olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Cover the baking dish tightly with foil and bake for about 45 or until garlic is soft and golden brown.  Remove from oven and allow to cool enough to handle the garlic.  Squeeze each garlic clove to release the garlic and place in a small bowl.

Heat a heavy bottom large saucepan over medium-high heat and melt 2 tablespoons butter.  Saute the onions and thyme and cook until the onions are soft and translucent, about 6 minutes. Add the roasted garlic, 18 cloves of raw garlic and cook for an additional 3 minutes.  Add chicken stock and cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the garlic is tender.  Use an immersion blener to puree the soup until smooth or transfer in batches to a blender.  Return the soup to the saucepan and add the heavy cream and bring to a simmer.  Season with additional salt and pepper if needed.

Divide the grated Parmesan cheese equally into 4 bowls and ladle in soup.  Squeeze lemon juice into each bowl and serve.  Garnish with fresh thyme or chopped chives.

Secret Recipe Club: Summer Gazpacho with a Nutty Twist

A cool refreshing soup bursting with flavor is perfect on a hot summer day.  Especially one that requires no cooking.  Gazpacho is a delicious chilled vegetable soup that originates from Spain.  I found this recipe for Summer Gazpacho with a Walnut Twist from Cheap Ethnic Eatz.  I had a blast browsing through Evelyn's blog as my first assignment with the Secret Recipe Club! 

What is the Secret Recipe Club you might ask?  It's a very cool online group founded by Amanda of Amanda's Cookin'.  Each month the participating food bloggers are each assigned another persons blog in the group to make a recipe from.  Everyone posts the recipes they made on the same day at the same time. The cool part it is a secret and you don't know who has been assigned who's blog until the post date.   It's a great way to get to know other food blogs, take on new recipes and increase exposure for everyone.  If you are interested in joining or just learning more head over the Secret Recipe Club.  And don't forget to scroll all the way to the end of this post to see the blog hop linking to what everyone made this month.

I have spent quite a bit of time perusing Cheap Ethic Eatz over the past month.  Though I'm a big fan of cheap (and delicious) food, I have to admit I'm not overly adventurous when it comes to ethnic cuisines.  I guess compared to my mom I'm a word traveler of cuisine, but compared to the truly adventurous, like Evelyn, I'm pretty basic.  I like, Italian, Greek, Persian, Lebanese, Japanese, Chinese, Mexican, French (to a certain extent).  I'm bit more leery of other types like Ethiopian, Korean, Thai or Indian.  The great thing about Evelyn's site is she has a range of diverse dishes.

When deciding which recipe to make, I must have changed my mind at least 56 4 or 5 times.  Some of the recipes I was debating on were homemade jalapeno hot sauce, aranci (Italian fried rice balls), peach salsa and fig ice cream.  In the end I went with Summer Gazpacho with a Walnut Twist.  I admit, I played it a little safe by making gazpacho....but I couldn't resist.  I came across it when we were in the middle of a mini heat wave here in Southern California and this no cook soup sounded like a perfect accompaniment to grilled mahi mahi I was planning to make.

The gazpacho was wonderful and this offered a twist I haven't seen before...topping your soup with herb toasted walnuts.  I didn't have walnuts on hand, but I had some pecans and they were a great addition to the soup, adding a nice texture and flavor.

The nuts give a little extra heartiness to this very light soup.  Hubby is not a fan of nuts so I also did a version with garlic croutons so his soup would have a little extra crunch.  And that was delicious too! 

If you have never tried gazpacho before, I highly recommend it.  Thanks for sharing a great recipe Evelyn!

Summer Gazpacho with a Walnut Twist
from Cheap Ethnic Eatz

For the gazpacho:
5 ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 cucumber, peeled and coarsely chopped (I left the skin on as I was using an English cucumber)
1 small red or green bell pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small onion, finely chopped (I used red onion)
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 1/2 cups tomato juice
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

For toasted walnuts:
2/3 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (I used walnuts)
1 teaspoon olive oil
3/4 teaspoon finely chopped herbs (I used fresh flat leaf parsley and a bit of minced garlic)
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Salt (optional)

To make soup:
Combine tomatoes, cucumber, pepper, garlic, onion, vinegar and tomato juice in a large bowl.  Transfer batches of the mixture to a food processor and pulse until coarsely pureed.  Transfer pureed soup into another large bowl and stir in salt and pepper, cover and chill in the refrigerator.  When serving if soup seems too thick, stir in more tomato juice.  Top with toasted nuts and serve.

To make herb walnuts:
Preheat over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line a small baking sheet with aluminum foil and toss nuts, herbs, cayenne and salt and pepper with your finger to coat.  Bake 5 to 7 minutes or until nuts are lightly toasted. 

French Fridays with Dorie: Paris Mushroom Soup

Only 2 days late posting. Could be worse.

Are you feeling like I am? Like all those holiday goodies are hanging around a little too long....like around the waist and thighs? It's high time to get back to healthy sensible eating. Well at least for a minute. Because just after this post, I will be posting some yummy almond raspberry and lemon cupcakes. Even more reason to work in lighter and healthier fare.

This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe fit the bill perfectly. Paris Mushroom Soup. It's low in fat (only 2 tablespoons of butter for 6 very generous servings). Mushrooms, onions, garlic, fresh herbs, chicken stock and little white wine. No cream. The soup gets pureed and served over some fresh parsley, green onions and thinly sliced mushrooms. Unfortunately I didn't have any mushrooms to spare for this step, so it's the one thing I left out. Though next time I would make sure to have ample mushrooms because I think it would really take this soup to the next level.

The soup was light and tasty, though it wasn't as amazing as I hoped it would be. But it was good enough to keep on the make again list to see if the extra mushrooms do the trick. Check out French Fridays with Dorie to see how the Paris Mushroom Soup turned out for the rest of the group. To get the recipe, pick up a copy of Dorie Greenspan's fabulous cookbook Around My French Table.