My Sweet Peppers in the Garden in January

Dear Folks,

For all of the crazy up/down weather, my sweet peppers are loving the cooler temps and ramping up production. So, I decided to use them to make some meals.  I did not take a picture of the potato/egg/pepper salad I made with the Orange Hungarian Paradicsom Sweet Pepper.  But is was great.  This pepper is a thick-walled lobbed variety and very sweet.  The plant is going on 5+ years old

The Purple Beauty (really black) Sweet pepper is truly a remarkable color.  I was so excited to harvest them, I forgot they are actually in their "green" stage and would eventually be more purple.  No matter, they were going into one of my "creamy soups."  The plant is still putting out flowers.

I sowed the seeds for the Purple Beauty, mid-December-2019 and transplanted to its pot home mid February 2020.

Peppers struggle to produce well in the heat of our summer, but overall grow well.  Then when the temps start to fall back down in fall they ramp up production again.

My "creamy" soups are a main vegetable, in this case the purple peppers, potato (for the 'creamy'), onion, avocado oil, salt, pepper and an herb or herbs. I choose rosemary for this one.  I frequently stir in cheese to melt right after pureeing the soup.  This time I decided not to use cheese.

I created a long collage of the photo steps.  I always garnish the soup with things from the garden.  Sometimes flowers or chopped sugar pea pods.  I used a mix of greens, herbs and sprouts (I was gifted with seed sprout tray-which I love), sliced radishes and I had some leftover breakfast sausage, and finally I always squeeze some of our limequat juice over the soup just before service. It gives the soup and extra zip.

Basic "Creamy" Potato Vegetable Soup
This makes about 3+ cups of finished soup (can easily be doubled)
The "Creamy" is from the potato - cheese optional, so this can be vegetarian, vegan, and dairy-allergic friendly

These soups reheat beautifully the next day - if there are leftovers.  Warm on the stove or micowave for 90 seconds. I have also frozen leftover.

THE KEY to the flavor and quality of this soup is:

1)  roasting the focus vegetable(s)
2)  using potato, don't rinse you need the starch and I strongly recommend leaving the peels on.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of avocado, olive or oil or fat of of choice
2 - 4 tablespoons of diced onion, leek, garlic, chive etc of your choice
1 medium size potato (small chunks equal to about 1 1/2 cups) - I do NOT peel my potatoes.
2 cups of vegetable of choice, diced
2 cups of water or broth
salt and cracked black pepper
limequat, lime or lemon
Optional:  complimentary herbs/spices to the vegetable
Optional;:  4 ounces of shredded or grated cheese of choice which compliments the vegetables and herbs: White cheddar, parmesan etc.  You could float a small cube of Brie on each bowl of soup as a garnish

Garnish of choice:  minced vegetables, slivered greens, capers or minced olives, edible flowers - pretty much any topping you think goes with the vegetable you chose.

An immersion blender works great for this.

Directions:

Heat oven to 450 and prepare a pan with aluminum foil for roasting the focus vegetable.

The timing of preparation is to take advantage of cooking two different components at the same time, so the whole preparation takes about 20-30 minutes.

Prepare the vegetable.
Wash potato, remove any blemishes, do not peel, cut into chunks and add to water, set aside.
Prepare onion (garlic etc.) of choice
Prepare or have ready the complimentary herb or spice mix you are using
Have your choice of garnishes ready and set aside
Shred cheese if using, set aside

In the pot you will cook the soup in, warm 1 tablespoon of fat/oil of choice and toss the focus vegetable with the oil - in the pot.  Spread the vegetable out on the prepared pan and season with salt and pepper. Do not wipe out the pot.

Add the last tablespoon of fat to the pot, and cook the onion of choice on low.  Put the pan of vegetables into the oven and set the time for 5 minutes.

Stir the onion and do not let it burn.

When the timer goes off, add the potatoes and water (or broth) to the pot, bring to a boil, covered.

Stir the pan of vegetables and reset the timer for 5 minutes.

Lower the pot to a gentle low boil.

When the timer goes off, add the roasted vegetable to the pot, add any herbs or spices you are going to use, cover and boil on low for 7 minutes or until the potato is tender.

Remove from heat and using an immersion blender, puree the soup - I like to leave some chunks in for texture.

At this point if you are adding cheese, do so and stir to fully melt the cheese.  Ladle into bowls, top with garnish of choice, squeeze some lime or lemon juice over and serve and enjoy!

I hope you try this type of soup with your favorite vegetable(s) from the garden.

Have a best day,

Be safe, be kind, be gentle with yourself and each other. 

You can find my gardening calendars and books on my website.

-- Catherine, The Herb Lady

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