Lentil And Sweet Red Pepper Soup With Cumin And Black Pepper Food

ROASTED PEPPER AND LENTIL SOUP

Steps:

• Set oven rack about 6 inches from the heating element in your oven and preheat the broiler. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
• Arrange red bell pepper halves, yellow bell pepper halves, and orange bell pepper halves onto prepared baking sheet with cut sides down.
• Roast peppers under the preheated broiler until the skin of the peppers has blackened and blistered, 5 to 8 minutes. Place the blackened peppers into a bowl and tightly seal with plastic wrap. Steam as they cool until the skin has loosened completely, about 20 minutes. Remove and discard skins. Cut peppers into small dice.
• Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat; cook and stir onion and carrot in hot oil until onion is translucent, about 10 minutes. Add garlic, tarragon, thyme, and paprika; continue to cook and stir until garlic is fragrant, about 2 minutes.
• Stir roasted peppers, tomatoes, water, and hot sauce into the peppers mixture, place a cover on the pot, and cook until the tomatoes soften, about 5 minutes.
• Pour vegetable broth into the pot; add lentils, bay leaves, salt, and black pepper; bring to a boil, cover the pot, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook until lentils are tender, about 45 minutes.
• Pour soup into a blender or food processor no more than half full. Cover and hold lid down; pulse several time to get the soup to be only slightly chunky. Repeat processing until all soup has been blended.

TAKE-OUT LENTIL SOUP WITH GARLIC AND CUMIN

Steps:

• Heat the olive oil in a large pot set over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook for 6 minutes, until the onions become translucent. Add the cumin and continue to cook for another minute.
• Add the lentils, stock, salt and pepper, and simmer for 30 minutes, or until the lentils have broken down. Add water if the soup needs thinning.
• Stir in the lemon juice, taste, and reseason if necessary.
• Ladle into soup bowls and drizzle with olive oil to serve.
• Tip: There are many varieties of lentils: red, green, yellow, and black. Although green is the easiest to find, any variety works well in this soup.
• Make ahead: This soup can be made up to 2 days ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator.

LENTIL AND SWEET RED PEPPER SOUP WITH CUMIN AND BLACK PEPPER

Steps:

• Simmer lentils with parsley, bay leaf, broth, and water in a 4-quart saucepan, uncovered, until tender, 30 to 40 minutes.
• While lentils are cooking, coarsely grind peppercorns with cumin using a mortar and pestle or an electric coffee/spice grinder. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a 4-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat until hot but not smoking, then cook bell pepper, stirring, until golden, about 5 minutes. Add spices and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add carrot, celery, onion, garlic, and remaining 3 tablespoons oil and cook, stirring, until carrot is tender, about 8 minutes. Stir in lentil mixture and discard bay leaf.
• Purée 1 cup soup in a blender until smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids). Stir purée into remaining soup and reheat over moderate heat, stirring. Season soup with salt and pepper. If soup seems too thick, thin with water to desired consistency.

SWEET RED PEPPER SOUP

Steps:

• Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.
• Add the onion and garlic.
• Cook for 5-8 minutes or until onions are tender.
• Add the red peppers.
• Continue cooking for 5 minutes.
• Add the stock, freshly ground pepper and salt.
• Bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 25 minutes.
• Put soup through a food mill to remove the pepper skins.
• Return to saucepan.
• Add cream and heat through without boiling.

RED LENTIL SOUP

Steps:

• Start by putting the lentils in a sieve and rinsing them under cold water to remove some of the excess starch.
• Heat the oil in a pot and add in the onions. Turn the heat down to low and leave the onions to gently cook until soft and translucent, about 5-10 minutes.
• Stir in the tomato purée until all the onions have been coated and cook for about 2 minutes.
• Next, add in the red pepper and mix in with the onions.
• In the meantime, dissolve the two stock cubes in a litre of boiling water.
• Add the red lentils and the ham stock to the pot and stir. Leave the soup to simmer for 10-15 minutes.
• If you would like to purée the soup, do so now. I like to give it a few quick pulses with my stick blender to remove any large chunks of onion or pepper, but don´t purée it until completely smooth.
• Season the soup to taste with chilli flakes (if you like a little spice), salt and pepper.
• Serve hot, with some crusty bread and butter. The soup can also be easily reheated the next day or frozen.