Roasted Paprika Pepper & Sweet Potato Soup
The weather seems to have changed instantly with the official arrival of fall. It is my favourite time of year; I love to be outdoors, walking, the weather is perfect. Like many people, I start to crave a warm nourishing bowl of soup at this time of year, so we headed to the farmers market this weekend for some inspiration. This was only my second time this year at the farmers market. Between our weekly CSA share and our own garden, we just didn’t have the need for more veggies from the market; though I missed the people and the atmosphere. While there, I spotted these beautiful heirloom Alma Paprika Peppers at an organic vendor; inspiration was found.
I believe red pepper soup is most commonly made with tomatoes, but I knew that would just be too much acidity for me. I decided to balance the spicy flavour of the paprika peppers with sweet potatoes. This is a grown up soup. It has a really nice spice to it, but it would be too much for my kids (my daughter did try it, but only managed a few bites before declaring it was too spicy!) If you want to make it more kid friendly, I would suggest using mostly sweet red bell peppers and maybe only 1 or 2 paprika.
The soup itself is super simple to make. You place everything on a baking sheet to roast in the oven. Try your best to chop everything to a size that will cook evenly. I chopped the peppers in half, I left the garlic bulb whole just trimming the top; the sweet potatoes I chopped into fairly small chunks and the onion I chopped in half and then in 4’s, as it cooks the fastest (be sure to keep an eye on it). I tossed these veggies in a bit of cooking oil, however with a non stick pan or parchment paper, you could easily make this soup without adding any extra fat.
- 8 small Alma Paprika Peppers cored, seeded and chopped in half
- 1 bulk head of garlic with the top trimmed off (exposing the garlic)
- 5 medium sized sweet potatoes peeled and chopped
- 2 medium onions chopped into eighths (I used HUGE scallions from my CSA share)
- 1-2 tbsp cooking oil of your choice
- 1tbsp dried Summer Savory herb (or thyme)
- 1tsp dried Oregano
- 1 cup of water
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
- 1L of vegetable stock
- Coconut yogurt for topping (optional)
- Preheat oven to 425F
- On a large baking sheet (or 2) spread out all of your veggies (peppers, garlic, sweet potato, and onion) drizzle with a bit of oil and sprinkle with summer savory. Roast for 30-45 minutes until roasted tender. Turn the vegetable half way through cooking (except the garlic).
- Allow the veggies to cool and then puree in your food processor in 2 batches with the water.
- Transfer the puree to a medium pot and slowly stir in the vegetable stock. Add the oregano, sea salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
- Serve hot with a dollop of coconut yogurt
looks awesome dish it up!
What an absolutely fabulous soup! Thanks for the link to the peppers. I've never heard of them before, but I'm going to have to find them. I love soups with roasted peppers in them and this one is certainly no exception.
Thank you MJ!
This is the first I have used the peppers myself. We bought enough to dry some also, it made a really nice powder! I shared the link to give the idea of size. They are smaller than a typical pepper…if using bell or something like that I would likely use 4 not 8
This looks like a delicious flavorful soup. Thanks for sharing it a Gluten-Free Wednesdays.
This soup looks great. I think I’ll give it a try but add in some chicken or shrimp to get my protein.
Thank you! Let me know how it turns out with the added meat if you make it! I apprecaite the feedback