roasted red pepper bisque

I'd love to say I plan our family dinners in advance.  Many days I dig through my fridge and see what's available before I can piece together a meal.  Yesterday, I wasn't feeling dinner until I rummaged through my vegetable drawers and came up with three big red peppers.  A spark of excitement ignited because I knew just what to do with them.

Roasted red pepper bisque (my original recipe)
3 large red peppers (cored and cut into thirds)
1 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped white onion
2 Tbsp flour
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
2 cups whole milk or half and half (or a combination of the two)
3 tsp curry powder
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt (more to taste)
1/2-2/3 cup white wine or sherry (even a good quality beer would be good)
1/4-1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander (try to get your hands on fresh, it makes all the difference)

Place your peppers on a baking sheet and broil on high for about 15 minutes or until the skins are good and charred.  Then move the baking pan to a lower shelf and bake the peppers at 300 degrees for 15 minutes.  When cooled peel the charred skins off and puree the peppers in your food processor. Add a 1/4 cup of broth to the processor if liquid is needed to get a smooth puree. Set aside.

While the peppers are broiling and baking, saute the onion on medium heat in a pot with the oil and butter until translucent.  Add the flour and stir for one minute.  Slowly add the broth whisking as you pour to combine with the flour.  Let it get hot and bubble a little bit.  Add the milk or cream (I used one cup of each) and the wine or sherry (or beer).  Let it get hot again and bubble a bit.  Turn the temp down to medium low and add the curry, pepper, salt and red pepper puree.  Taste the soup for saltiness and add more if needed.  I think I added a total  of 2 tsp salt all together.  The salt really brings out the roasted red pepper flavor.  Add the chopped fresh coriander at the end and stir.  This serves 4 adults so if you want a big pot of soup for leftovers I would double the recipe.  I served this with bread sticks.  Any bread for dipping will do.  Soup requires bread for dipping in my opinion.

The coriander in this soup adds a nice flavor.  In combination with the curry it's a bit spicy but not a hot spicy.  The baby couldn't get enough of this soup so it wasn't too spicy for her!  It's more of a refreshing spice.  Not something you taste every day.  My husband had to ask me twice if I really made this.  It's such a different combination of flavors than I usually put together.  It is a delicious soup.  Something you could serve as a first course for a dinner party.  Your guests will likely be surprised like Justin was!

For the bread sticks I used my cheater dinner roll recipe but instead of making rolls, I kneaded a 1/2 Tbsp of poppy seeds in to the dough, cut it into 6 sections, rolled them into long 13 inch sticks, brushed with butter, sprinkled with salt and baked them at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.