Red Pepper & Gouda Soup

I'm going to start by letting you know that this soup is dangerous. I know, you think I'm going to say, "It's dangerously good." While that is true, that's not what I was going to say. I actually injured myself making this soup. It starts out with eight red bell peppers, and by the time that I finished dicing up all of them, I had a blister on my hand. I told you, it's dangerous. Be warned.

That being said, it was totally worth it because this soup really is delicious. It doesn't have complicated, multi-layered flavors all working in harmony to produce an excellent overall flavor; the taste is simple and straight forward, and sometimes that's all you really need. You can taste the red peppers. You can taste the gouda. What else do you need?

Justin liked the flavor of this soup, but he felt it needed something else. I think it's because he's not a big broth guy. If we have chicken noodle soup, he wants a bowl full of literally chicken and noodles with just enough broth to make it all moist. This soup, on the other hand, is all broth. I made macaroni and cheese muffins to go with this and have some elbow pasta left over from that, so I'm going to toss some of those in with his leftover soup tonight and see how he feels about that instead. I'm sure it will be good that way, too. You could probably add some chicken or Italian sausage to it to make it even more of a hearty, filling soup, but honestly I like it just like it is.


Ingredients

4 tbsp butter or margarine
8 red bell peppers, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 c chicken broth
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 1/4 c half-and-half
6 oz gouda, shredded


Directions

Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add red bell peppers, onion, and garlic, and cook 15-20 minutes, until peppers are soft. Add chicken broth, salt, and pepper, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer 30 minutes. Use an immersion blender to purée soup until smooth. (If you don't have an immersion blender, add the soup to your regular blender and purée it in batches, and then return the soup to the pot.) Pour in half-and-half, and heat through, stirring well. Remove from heat, and add gouda. Stir until cheese is completely melted.


Servings: 4


Recipe adapted from Shape.