16 BEANS AND PASTA SOUP AND ROASTED RED BELL PEPPER SOUP

16 BEANS AND PASTA SOUP AND ROASTED RED BELL PEPPER SOUP
Here I go again with another bean and pasta soup. I found this 16-bean soup mix at Wegmans’ recently. It had a combination of beans like red bean, fava bean, black beans, and even some lentils. There were many beans in that mixture that I did not know the name of. I brought this one and soaked the beans overnight the very same dat, I think my obsession with beans is getting crazy :( The soup though came out pretty good. I added some whole wheat pasta at the end and my husband liked this one very much. I was surprised since he is not a great fan of bean soups. The lentils dissolved well and gave the soup some thickness. The recipe I am posting here is the same one which I have posted for most of my bean soups where I add canned tomatoes and some chili powder for some heat. They can be modified according to individual taste. If needed, the chili powder can be substituted for black pepper.

Coming to the roasted red bell pepper soup, I was wondering whether is it really necessary to roast the red peppers, let them cool, peel the skin, and then make soup, why not just sauté the peppers and grind them? Trust me on this one friends, the roasting and the extra work is worth all the trouble. This soup was simply the best I ever made. I made a whole pot full of this soup and we finished it off the same day itself, it tasted soo good :) The picture of the red pepper soup is not that good since I had used flash when the photo was taken.

I will be posting more soup recipes in my next posts since most of my friends are on a diet now and they keep asking me for soup recipes. Here are the recipes of the 2 soups I made this week:

16 BEANS AND PASTA SOUP

INGREDIENTS:
Any bean soup mix, 1 cup, soaked overnight.
Red onion, 1.
Garlic, 2 cloves.
Canned tomatoes, about ½ can.
Tomato paste, 1 tablespoon.
Chili powder, ½ teaspoon.
Any whole wheat pasta, 1 cup.
Se salt as per taste.
Olive oil, 1 tablespoon.

PREPARATION:
Soak the beans overnight and cook them for 1-1/12 hours until they are tender. Chop the onion, into small pieces and keep aside. Crush the garlic coarsely. Heat a pot with some olive oil. Add the chopped onions along with the crushed garlic and sauté them for a minute. When the onion turns brown, add the canned tomatoes, tomato paste, cooked beans, chili powder, and salt along with 5 cups of water. Cook the soup closed for 10 minutes. Then add the pasta and let it cook until it is al-dente. Take care not to overcook the pasta. If the pasta is overcooked, they start to fall apart and don’t taste good. Switch off the stove and serve the soup garnished with a teaspoon of extra-virgin olive oil on top.

ROASTED RED BELL PEPPERS SOUP
INGREDIENTS:
Red bell peppers, 6.
Onion, large, 1.
Garlic, 2 cloves.
Chili powder, ¼ teaspoon.
Any seasonings mixture, ¼
Sea salt as per taste.
Broth or water, 5 cups.

PREPARATION:
Wash the peppers and pat them dry. Place them on a cookie sheet and spray some cooking oil to each of them. Bake the peppers at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes until the skin of the bell peppers becomes black. Put them in a bowl and cover the bowl tightly with a plastic sheet and let it cool for 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, dice the onion and heat a pot with some olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the diced onions and sauté for a minute. Then add the 2 cloves of garlic and keep sautéing until everything is well caramelized. Switch off the stove and let it cool. When the red bell peppers have cooled, take them out of the bowl and peel the outer skin of the peppers. Discard the seeds from the flesh and put the roasted peppers into a blender. Add the sautéed onion and garlic to this mixture and blend everything into a smooth paste. Pour the contents onto the pot with 5 cups of broth or water, along with the chili powder, seasonings, salt as per taste and let it simmer for 15 minutes. Ladle the soup onto serving bowls, garnish the soup with some grated cheddar cheese and serve hot with any crusty bread.