Soup Sundays

For the last 3 years, I have followed my husband to Asia and the Caribbean as he pursued a career in International Education Administration (not that I am complaining!). I have written travel/history blogs of the many places we have visited, but now that we have settled into our beautiful new home on the south branch of the Muskoka River, near Bracebridge, I am ready to write about other things.

 

So I thought I'd start my new Muskoka blog with soup! In my family, we started a tradition many years ago, which I'm sure is not unique to us, of having a family meal with soup as the main course every Sunday night. This started because I was given a bread maker one Christmas and I thought soup would go well with home-made bread. I have a couple of recipe boxes full of soups I've cut from magazines and newspapers, or copied from books, many of which I've never tried. I thought I'd work my way through these, more or less every Sunday, but I will also include some of my favourites.

This week's soup is: Roasted Red Pepper and Sweet Potato 

Ingredients:

3               sweet red peppers, chopped

2               sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed (about 4 cups)

1               onion, chopped (I used a red onion because I didn't have anything else)

3              cloves garlic (no need to chop, whole will do. I used large ones)

2 tbsp     olive oil (the recipe calls for extra-virgin, which I used, but in this case does it really matter? And 

                    the vegetables are being cooked at high heat, so maybe regular olive oil is better).

1 tsp        dried Italian herb seasoning (I used Club House Signature Blends: Italiano)

1/4 tsp    each, salt and pepper

4 cups     chicken or vegetable stock (sodium reduced specified. I used a 900 ml tetra pac of chicken)

2/3 cup   Balkan-style plain yogurt (I used 1-100gr. container of Oikus Greek, which was plenty for the      

                     2 of us. What is the difference? Greek has some of the water or whey removed to make it thicker).

2 tbsp      chopped fresh parsley (I often skip the fresh because I don't have it on hand, but in this recipe,

                     fresh parsley is important to balance the flavours).

Method:

• In a roasting pan, toss together red peppers, potatoes, onion, garlic, oil, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. (I used one of those store bought, disposable lasagna pans. You will need something fairly big - there are a lot of vegetables.) Roast at 425 F (preheated) stirring once (I stirred it at least 3 times) until tender and golden at edges, about an hour.
• In food processor, purée vegetables with stock, in batches; strain into large pot. (I deviated slightly from the recipe here. It seemed like extra work. I just poured the stock and vegetables into a large pot and used the hand blender to purée. The soup was quite smooth, but I guess if you want it  'silky' you should strain it. I didn't want to lose all that fibre). Whisk in 1 cup water.
• Bring soup to boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.
• Meanwhile, in small bowl, stir yogurt with parsley and serve dollops on bowls of soup.

The recipe is from January 2007, I suspect from Canadian Living, but I cut that part off. It says it makes 4 servings but I think it is more like 6. We both loved this soup - really good with the yogurt. I served it with the 'Pilsberry Country Biscuits' and an arugula/mandarin salad. I would rate this one 4 out of 5 - 1 point off not because of taste, but because it takes a good 30 minutes to prep. the vegetables, and then they cook for an hour, so you have to organize your time if you want to eat before 8:00!

Enjoy!

Here is the nutrition information: per serving (approx.) - 244 cal. 6 gr. pro, 10 gr. fat (includes 3 gr. saturated), 34 gr. carb, 3 gr. fibre (more if not strained?) 8 mg chol, 463 mg sodium. % RDI: 11% calcium, 13% iron, 245% vit A, 275% vit C, 14% folate