In 2011 Mr Monkey brought home the above soup for me to try – it was a special he was putting on at work. It was simple red capsicum soup, and pea puree with crumbled goat’s cheese. I remember I was home alone one night with a young Lily (as I was a lot) and simply reheated each separate container in the microwave, ladled it all in to a bowl and enjoyed one of the easiest and yummiest meals I had had in ages. I asked Mr Monkey for the recipe for ages but as always, it just got forgotten.
The other week for Meat Free Week I was looking for meals that were vegetarian and also low carb (because of my Gestational Diabetes). Soups seemed a good place to start as most are fairly low carb and can be bulked up by adding a bread roll or piece of bread.
One of my fantastic readers, Traci, sent through a scan of her CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet Cookbook. One recipe was for the Roast Red Capsicum and Tomato Soup.
I’ve never really been a fan of soup and definitely haven’t liked tomato soup but thought I’d give it a try; I’m trying to be more adventurous, especially with soups, and I thought the addition of the capsicum should hopefully make it more palatable.
I scheduled the soup for the Sunday, our last Meat Free meal for the week. I spent a few hours that afternoon at the Buddhist Centre and Mr Monkey and Lily prepared dinner so it was ready when I got home. So yes, I didn’t actually make this one myself but I asked Mr Monkey lots of questions and ate it so I think that’s fine! 
He said it was very simple and quick to make and it tasted really, really nice. I easily ate my bowl full and so did Mr Monkey. Lily wasn’t very interested but that’s fairly normal for her lately.
Mr Monkey realised that the addition of the tomato in the base soup would be great for his original recipe. So he put together the below recipe for me. It’s all really simple to put together and tastes amazing – the pea puree is wonderful with the capsicum and the goats cheese or feta adds just the right amount of creaminess and saltiness. As you can see in the photo, I didn’t have basil in the original soup – this has been added from the CSIRO recipe but I think it will just add something a bit more special.
Ingredients
- 2 red capsicums, halved and seeded
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion, finely sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 750g ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 2 cups vegetable stock
- 400g of green peas (frozen or fresh shelled)
- 120g goats cheese or fetta
- 1 handful basil, torn
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 Celsius.
- Place capsicums in a shallow baking tray skin side up and drizzle with half the oil.
- Roast for 20mins, or until softened.
- Remove from oven, cover with foil and allow to cool slightly.
- Peel off and discard skin and roughly chop flesh.
- Heat remaining oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
- Add onion and saute until soft.
- Add garlic and tomato paste and cook for 2mins, stirring constantly.
- Add capsicum, tomato and stock, cover and simmer for 15mins.
- Allow to cool slightly, then puree using a blender or hand-held processor. Season to taste.
- Boil peas for 1 minute.
- Blend peas in a blender, gradually adding water until it runs smooth.
- Reheat capsicum soup and serve by ladling soup into bowl.
- Place 1/4 of pea puree in each bowl carefully so that it floats, then place crumbled goats cheese or feta and basil on top.
Notes
Original recipe from CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet Cookbook
