Roasted Yellow Pepper Soup and Roasted Tomato Soup with Hot Pepper Cream

If you ask me what holiday I love most, I will respond “Thanksgiving.” I know, I know, it’s a horrible bastard of a colonized holiday. But for me, it’s just a time to cook for 2 days and share time and food with my good friends. For the last 5 years, I’ve hosted a “friends only” feast, and last year's was by far the most impressive. A full 5-course meal for 16 people, from appies too dessert, and way too much wine in between. The meal lasted 5 hours, including a rock band break before dessert. There was much laughter, much swearing (we all had name tags with pseudonyms like “Fuck Face” and “Ho’ Bag” adorning our shirts) and way too much drinking. I’m not one for traditional celebrations. At any rate, I’ve been meaning to post recipes from last Thanksgiving for about 11 months now. What can I say? I’m a procrastinator. At any rate, it’s high time I posted them, so here’s the first in a long awaited series of recipes from the Thanksgiving 2009 extravaganza!

Course one: Roasted Yellow Pepper Soup and Roasted Tomato Soup with Hot Pepper Cream

 

Makes about 3 cups of each soup, serving 6

Yellow pepper soup:

• 3 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled
• 1 tablespoon margarine (I use earth balance)
• 6 yellow bell peppers, roasted and chopped coarse (about 6 cups)
• 1 1/2 cups vegan bouillon plus additional to thin the soup as needed (I use Rapunzel with sea salt)
• 1/4 cup soy milk (or rice, or almond, etc)
• Fresh lemon juice to taste

Tomato soup:

• 3 pounds tomatoes, quartered
• 3 unpeeled large garlic cloves
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled
• 1 tablespoon margarine
• 1 1/2 cups vegan bouillon plus additional to thin the soup as needed (I use Rapunzel with sea salt)
• 1/4 cup soy milk (or rice, or almond, etc)
• Fresh lemon juice to taste

Hot Pepper cream:

• 3 fresh hot cherry peppers or 2 Serrano chilies, seeded and chopped fine (wear rubber gloves)
• 1 large garlic clove, minced and mashed to a paste
• 1/2 cup vegan sour cream

Yellow Pepper soup:

Char the peppers over an open flame or broil them in an oven to roast. In a large saucier, cook the shallot, the thyme, and salt and pepper to taste in the butter over moderately low heat, stirring, until the shallot is soft and translucent. Add the bell peppers and 1 1/2 cups of the broth, and simmer the mixture, covered, until the peppers are very soft (about 15 minutes). In a blender, purée the soup in batches until it is very smooth. Pour back into the pan and whisk in the soy milk, additional broth until it’s a consistency you like, the lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste.

Tomato soup:

Spread the tomatoes, skin side down, in one layer in 2 foil-lined jelly-roll pans, add the garlic to 1 of the pans, and bake the tomatoes and the garlic in a preheated 350°F. oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the tomatoes are very soft and their skin is dark brown. Let the tomatoes and the garlic cool in the pans on racks. In a heavy saucepan cook the shallot, the oregano, salt and pepper to taste in the butter over moderately low heat, stirring, until the shallot is soft, add the tomatoes, the garlic (skins discarded), and 1 1/2 cups of the broth, and simmer the mixture, covered, for 15 minutes. In a blender purée the soup in batches until it is very smooth, forcing it as it is puréed through a fine sieve set over the pan, cleaned, and whisk in the cream, the additional broth if necessary (both soups should have the same consistency), the lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. The soup may be made 1 day in advance, kept covered and chilled, and reheated.

Pepper “cream”:

Blend together the chilies, the garlic, and soy sour cream until smooth.

To serve the soup:

Take ½ cup of each soup and pour them simultaneously into a shallow soup bowl from opposite sides of the bowl. Drizzle about ½ Tbs of the “sour cream” mixture on the top

Thanks to Deedra for the pics!