I think by now, if you follow this account, you know how I feel about soups. I have a whole menu drop-down dedicated to soups. And it makes it all the easier when using this soup machine (and I have purchased almost a dozen in total).

One of my all time favorite soups is a roasted red pepper soup. I used to get it at the store already done. I would sit and sip on a cup of it with baby oyster crackers for dinner – especially on a day like today: rainy and not exactly cold but definitely draining.

Then I looked at the ingredients…. and the sugar content. That was the end of that. No more for me. Well now what do I do? I’ve watched people on youtube and cooking shows roast their own peppers and I’m sorry, I’m not doing that. I’m also not eating citric acid – which is in every canned and jarred roasted red peppers I’ve ever found in the stores.

So again, now what do I do?

I kept looking. It took me FOREVER, but I finally found roasted red peppers in a glass jar with no citric acid. If helpful, this brand was located at our Fresh Market. Called ”Divinia” – from Turkey. You will see clean ingredients (though some will turn their noses up at vinegar – I’ll take that over citric acid any day):

For this soup you will need:

• Roasted Red Peppers (get whatever you like, but if you can plan ahead and buy the brand mentioned above it will be a cleaner soup)
• Cashews (see below for advice)
• Chicken Broth (see below for advice, two boxes total)
• Roma Tomatoes (six total)
• Sea Salt, Black Pepper (I recommend a smoked salt for the best depth of flavor)
• Parsley (fresh or partly dried)
• Chipotle Seasoning (optional but REALLY good)
• Wild Rice (one bag)

So here’s some extra information for you that makes this soup even healthier. When it comes to cashews, a lot of us prefer to buy them already bagged and roasted. But take a look at the ingredients on the bags – in order to get them roasted, the companies use most often times canola oil and / or vegetable oil. Both terrible for you. Do yourself a favor and really LOOK for some that just say ”cashews” or ”cashews and salt”. I did find some at Sprouts in their seeds and nuts section where you bag them yourself. Then I found some at Kroger. So they are available, you just have to look.

Then go home, drizzle with your own olive oil and seasoning and roast them yourself. A quick google search will show you how long and at what temperature. If you wish to coat all of them and store them well, use a sandwich baggy – pour the olive oil and seasoning in, smooth everything around, dump everything on some parchment paper, bake and then store back in the bag again.

(I did not roast these for this soup)

When it comes to chicken broth – not all broths are created equal. Above, you will see the only brand we use – and it’s available everywhere. It has the cleanest ingredients (every other broth I have found has cane sugar in the ingredients. Why?!). So if you can, try to just get this broth – it doesn’t cost more, and it’s better for you. Also comes in low salt. For quick reference the brand is called “Imagine”.

If you don’t have the soup machine, just prepare as you normally would – with your immersion or stand blender. I purchased eight roma tomatoes and used six, saving two for salads later. One jar of the roasted red peppers (16.2 oz jar), two boxes of broth and two cups of cashews – getting a one pound bag.

First, cut your tomatoes – three tomatoes at a time in the soup maker. All six if using an immersion blender or stand blender. Throw them in.

Take a cup of cashews and add that to the soup maker (two cups total if using conventional method).

And then half the entire jar of roasted red peppers – cutting once or twice to break them down and then adding them to the soup maker (the entire jar if using conventional method). Always drain the jar first!!! If you’re especially adverse to vinegar, after draining the peppers just rinse them in a colander.

Then add your broth to the max line of the soup maker (or both boxes in the stock pot) and hit the first button for blending / pureeing. This will be done in 18 mins. If using the conventional method, go ahead and get everything to boil and simmer till softened. Blend how your normally would and then add the pepper to taste and the salt as well (more on that below).

While this cooks / boils, go ahead and start making your rice. You can choose whichever rice you prefer (black rice would have been nice, for example) but we find that wild rice holds up the best against creamy soups.

Regardless, prepare as it states on the bag – for this brand it was a cup and 1/3rd of water to a cup of rice. Boil and then simmer for 45 mins.

(Obviously the soup would be done before then so just leave it to simmer / stay warm on the stove)

Should you be using the soup maker, you will do this twice (or get two soup makers and save yourself the time like I did and make two batches at once: Just shy of one box of broth, one cup of cashews, one half the jar of roasted red peppers and three tomatoes per batch). Once done, regardless of which method, the color and texture should look like this:

Add everything (back into if using conventional method) to a stock pot so you can keep on simmer till ready to eat and add your seasonings.

I chose a smoked salt and some black pepper. You can use any smoked salt you find or, if you think just regular sea salt is okay considering the peppers are roasted go ahead and use what you have. We found the smoked salt to really take this over the top. It’s worth the investment – you can use it with most things and it really does make a difference. You can alternatively, play around with the seasoning entirely – my husband added the smoked salt and chipotle. I would recommend adding the chipotle – if you do, start small and see what you think in a separate bowl. We added a quarter teaspoon to his individual soup… Depends on how spicy you like things!

If you choose this exact kind, you can find it online.

In the stock pot regular sea salt is to taste. Otherwise, smoked salt is a heaping teaspoon – not leveled one, with black pepper (as much pepper as you like).

Stir and then taste. Take your same one cup measure you had used for the rice, if you’d like to present this way, and add just a little bit of water to it to coat it and allow the rice to pop out easily. Take your parsley and if dry, rinse and chop.

Pack the rice (very well) into the one cup measure and then flip it over and tap it just once to release into the soup bowl.

Pour your smokey soup all around the rice.

Now add your parsley, if you chose to get some, to the soup and enjoy!!

You can obviously just pour the rice directly into the soup and serve as one big comforting bowl that way too – but you have to make sure you really allow yourself some bites of pure soup. The roasted red pepper is cooled just a bit by the tomato but then the whole dish is elevated back up with the smoked salt. No cream or half and half made the list – just the pure cashews which will thicken this soup over night. Should that happen (which is delicious and works as a pasta sauce or over chicken filets in the oven) and you wish to thin it out, use either some water or the remaining broth (the broth lasts in the fridge one week to ten days after opening).

Bowls are from Sur La Table, Soup Maker is Philips found at Williams Sonoma and HSN.