An Almost Elegant Soup

 I’ve always found the following Red Pepper and Tomato Soup to be a very elegant way to start a meal.  It’s richly flavoured and it’s beautifully coloured.  The contrast between the scarlet liquid and white bowls is really quite lovely.  And if you take the time (which you really, really should even though it’s horribly tedious) to push the soup through a sieve, the texture is positively velvety. 

What is less elegant, however, is my insistance on creating little cream love hearts on the surface of the soup. 

Cute?  Yes. 

Elegant?  Perhaps not. 

Bovered?  Not in the slightest

Red Pepper and Tomato Soup (based on Lindsay Bareham’s version in the remarkable A Celebration of Soup)

Serves 4 as a starter

5 red peppers,

1 onion, chopped

400ml tomato juice

2 tblspn tomato puree

400ml stock (chicken or vegetable)

1/2 lemon

Seasoning

• Roast and peel the red peppers in which ever way you please.  I do it this way.
• Saute the onion in a little olive oil until softened. 
• Add the pepper and olive oil to a food processor and whizz for a few seconds.
• Add the tomato juice, tomato puree and stock to the blender and whizz again, this time for longer.  Whizz until you can no longer see whole onion pieces flying by.
• Push the soup through a sieve into a pan.  I like to use rubber gloves to do this.  You won’t get it all through, by the by.  It’s fine to be left with a few tablespoons of pinky oniony stuff in the sieve.
• Heat the soup over a medium low heat until almost simmering.  Add lemon juice and seasoning to taste. 
• Serve topped with  a little cream in the shape of a love heart.  🙂

P.S.  Didn’t think there would be any food blogging these few weeks.  As always though, this blog is a welcome escape.

P.P.S.  If you’re confused by the word “bovered” watch this.  Hillarious.

Advertisement