Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup

So of course after our weekend in Colorado, we brought home some leftover Christmas dinner... fried turkey {injected with jalapeno butter}, honey baked ham, twice baked potatoes, praline sweet potatoes, creamed corn with garlic and brussel sprouts. It was more than amazing! Dianne is such a great cook, I love to learn from her.

 

We have a ton of left over ham so I've decided to use it for grilled ham and cheese sandwiches {with horseradish and dijon mustard}, muenster being the cheese. I was trying to figure out what to serve with the sandwiches and nothing goes better with grilled cheese than soup. The basis for this recipe looked interesting, I've made tomato soup before but it's never been as good as I had hoped. The addition of roasted red peppers really makes it taste great. Plus, it's got red pepper flakes for some heat!



Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup

9-10 vine ripened tomatoes
2 red peppers, roasted
6 cloves garlic
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
3 tablespoons onion
1/2 tablespoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon basil
1/2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 1/2 cup chicken stock
salt and pepper, to taste

• Score the tops of the tomatoes and blanch them in boiling water for about 20 seconds, or until you can remove the skins. Put them into an ice bath and peel and remove the seeds.
• Combine the roasted red peppers, olive oil and 2 cloves of garlic {sliced} and let marinate.
• In a pot over medium-high heat, add some of the olive oil from the red peppers and butter. Saute the onions until translucent, add the remaining cloves of garlic {chopped} and cook until softened.
• Add the tomatoes, red pepper mixture, basil, red pepper flakes, red wine vinegar and chicken stock and cook until softened, about 30 minutes.
• Once softened, put the mixture in a blender {I used our awesome Blendtec} and blend until pureed.

Ashley