Soup Part 2

Today I went apple picking with the family. While we were there we saw they had beets, broccoli, and radishes up for picking as well. Exciting! In total we got 21 pounds of beets and 76 pounds of apples. Haha, we went a little crazy picking. If you picked over 20 pounds of apples it was $1.29 per pound and over 20 pounds of beets it was only $.79 per pound. But i'll be making lots of applesauce, pies, and other apple filled things this fall. Applesauce freezes extremely well too. I noticed that the farm we went to (Larriland Farms in Western Howard County) also has peach, raspberry, strawberry, blackberry, and cherry picking in the summer. So you can guess what I'll be doing next summer. As promised here is my second cold weather soup, even though it was close to 80 degrees today!

Here is a great alternative to traditional tomato soup. It’s has a smoky flavor and tastes just as good cold as it does hot. This is probably the easiest soup to make. You will need a food processor or blender.

Roasted Tomato & Red Pepper Soup

Serves 2-4

2 red bell peppers, seeded and cut into large pieces

4 medium tomatoes, cut in quarters

1 small onion, cut into thick slices

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 ½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil

¾ cup vegetable broth

2 tbsp rice or soy milk

1 tsp lemon juice

1 ½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

¼ tsp sugar

- Preheat your broiler.

- Toss the red bell peppers, tomatoes, onion, and garlic with oil on a large sheet pan. - Place under broiler (about 4 inch from heat) and cook until the edges of the vegetables are charred and tender, about 10 minutes. Stir half way.

- Place the vegetables in a food processor and pulse until smooth.

- In a medium size pot add the pureed vegetables, vegetable broth, rice milk, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and sugar. Place over medium heat and stir until heated through.

These are the last red tomatoes I was able to pick from my garden. This morning, in fear of the upcoming cold weather, I picked the last couple tomatoes which are green. We plan to make fried green tomatoes or maybe a green tomato salsa.

- kab