Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Soup

As I have said before...I love cooking! It is truly something I could get lost in for hours and it serves as a stress reliever for me. I grew up watching and helping my mother and grandmother cook and I always wanted to be in the kitchen. One thing about my cooking is that I rarely ever follow a recipe exactly. Most of the time I don't really use a recipe. I glance at them, see what ingredients are needed, get a general idea of how it is prepared, and get started making changes along the way!

As I posted before, we started our first garden this summer! I must say, it has been very successful. I have picked several cucumber, peppers, tomatoes, and heads of lettuce. Right now I have an abundance of tomatoes.

So I decided to make a roasted red pepper and tomato soup. 

I found this recipe and pretty much went with it with a few adjustments for portion size, preparation, etc. This is what I did:

1 Red pepper

3 medium sized tomatoes 

1/2 of 1 large onion chopped

1 clove of garlic chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon of thyme

about 1 teaspoon of paprika

a couple of sprinkles of chili powder

1/2 teaspoon sugar

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup milk

a dash of tabasco sauce

less than 1/4 teaspoon of chili sauce (or more if you like it spicier!)

salt and pepper to taste

1 Tablespoon of butter

1 1/2 tablespoons flour

How I made it:

First I roasted the red pepper and the tomatoes. I set the oven to 400 and coated the outside of the whole peppers and tomatoes with olive oil. After about 15 minutes I set the oven to broil and let the skins of the vegetables get crispy and darker. After this I took the tomatoes and peppers out and set them to chill in the fridge. Once the were cool I was easily able to peel off the tough skins and seed the tomatoes. This part was super easy.

While the veggies were roasting I was sauteing the chopped onion and garlic in olive oil til soft. I added the thyme, sugar, paprika, chili sauce, and chili powder. Once I had peeled and seeded the tomatoes and peppers (save a few diced red peppers to mix in at the end) I added this to the mix and cooked until most juices had evaporated. I added the chicken broth now and simmered for about 5 minutes.

Then I poured my mixture into the blender to mix until it was smooth. While the tomato and red pepper mixture was in the blender I added the butter and flour to the pan. This acted as a thickener for the soup. Then I whisked in my cup of milk until it was smooth as well. At that time I was able to add my tomato and red pepper mixture. As I finished I added a little more Tabasco for heat, toasted up some french bread, added a few roasted red peppers to the top of my soup that I had reserved, and a dropped a dollop of sour cream to finish it off! It took some time to make, but it was awesome! This made about 2 1/2 bowls of soup...so next time I make this  will probably double or triple the recipe so that I will have some soup to freeze for later.