Roasted Red Pepper Soup

1 10-oz jar of roasted red bell peppers, or you can roast 5 of them yourself

½ tablespoon olive oil

5 cloves garlic, chopped

1 large onion, chopped – I like to use a purple onion

1 cup celery, chopped

1 cup carrots, chopped (or you can use pre-shredded from produce department)

1 large potato, thinly sliced (I leave the peel on). This helps to thicken the soup when pureed

1 bay leaf

6 oz can of low sodium tomato paste

5, 14 oz cans of Vegetable Stock (or you can use chicken broth)

fat free sour cream or fat free yogurt cheese

Fresh basil leaves

Empty the jar of red peppers into a strainer placed over a bowl or in the sink. Once they have drained I slice them open and remove any seeds. Heat the olive oil in a large pot (4 or 5 quart). Add the onion, celery, carrots and garlic, lightly salt and pepper and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the potato, Vegetable Stock, tomato paste and bay leaf and bring to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes. Add the roasted red peppers and simmer for 15 more minutes. Remove the bay leaf and process in a food processor or blender until smooth. Taste and add salt or pepper if needed I usually don’t add any additional salt or pepper. Add a dollop of fat-free sour cream, or homemade yogurt cheese (from fat free yogurt), chop the basil into ribbons and sprinkle on top of soup that’s been ladled into a bowl. This soup is very good heated up in the microwave the next day.

Estimated cooking time – about 50 minutes.

Variations: Sometimes I use a whole roasted garlic bulb instead of the garlic cloves – it’s sweeter. For added kick add 1 Chipolte pepper in Adobe sauce when adding the Vegetable Stock. This soup is also good to dump in any leftover vegetables that you might be in the refrigerator, like baked squash, leftover brown rice or black beans -–the black beans will give it a darker color when you puree it and will add lots of fiber and protein.