Photo of Roasted Red Pepper & Pear Soup by WW

Roasted Red Pepper & Pear Soup

2
Points®
Total Time
1 hr 30 min
Prep
40 min
Cook
35 min
Serves
8
Difficulty
Easy
This luscious soup has the beautiful color of its star ingredient, roasted red peppers but other hard working vegetables play a big roll in the flavor and texture of this warm delight. The carrots provide sweetness along with the pears. The pears also give the soup some body and the thickness is thanks to the potato. Roasting and skinning peppers is really quite simple. Just make sure they’re cool to the touch so you don’t burn your fingertips. Serve this soup as a first course of a high end dinner or cuddle up with a bowl and a side of grilled french bread or simple green salad.

Ingredients

Red bell pepper

4 medium, halved, cored, seeded, deribbed

Unsalted butter

2 Tbsp

Uncooked onion

1 medium, yellow, finely diced

Garlic

3 clove(s), minced

Carrots

2 medium, finely diced

Fresh thyme

3 sprig(s)

Kosher salt

¾ tsp

Black pepper

¼ tsp

Uncooked russet potato

1 medium, peeled, roughly diced

Pear

2 medium, semi-firm, peeled, cored, roughly diced

Chicken stock

6 cup(s), or vegetable, preferably homemade but canned fine

Fresh parsley

1 Tbsp, chopped (for garnish)

Instructions

  1. Set oven rack so it’s 6 inches from broiler; preheat broiler to high. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
  2. Put pepper halves skin-side up on prepared baking sheet (line with aluminum foil if desired); broil until skins completely blacken, rotating baking sheet a few times so peppers broil evenly, 10 to 15 minutes depending on strength of broiler. Immediately transfer pepper halves to a large bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap to trap in steam (steam will help loosen the skins); let peppers sit until cool enough to handle, 10-15 minutes. Hold a pepper half in your hand under running water; rub off and discard charred skin with your fingers. Repeat with remaining peppers and then roughly chop peeled peppers; set aside.
  3. Meanwhile, in a large pot over medium heat, melt butter. Add onion, garlic, carrots and thyme; sprinkle with a generous pinch salt and a few grinds black pepper. Cook, stirring a few times, until vegetables are softened but haven’t taken on any color, about 15 minutes.
  4. Add roasted peppers, potato and pears to pot; season with salt and pepper. Pour in broth; increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; simmer until potatoes can be easily pierced with tip of a paring knife, 15 to 20 minutes.
  5. Fish out and discard thyme stems (most of the thyme leaves will have fallen off into soup which is fine). Puree soup in pot using an immersion blender - be sure to keep it submerged so hot soup doesn’t splatter (or carefully puree in batches using a regular blender). Season to taste with more salt and/or pepper (optional); serve garnished with parsley.
  6. Serving size: 1 c

Notes

This recipe by Julia Turshen, originally published in SMALL VICTORIES, has been modified for WeightWatchers® with permission.