Red Bell Pepper Cashew Soup

Red Bell Pepper Cashew Soup with a Splashs of Hot Sauce

It's been bone-chilling, cold and dreary out and I was wanting something warm and comforting for dinner.  I was mentally talking myself out of ordering pizza or making a huge pot of mac and cheese, when I found 4 red bell peppers in the veggie crisper drawer.  I argued with myself that I was not going to eat more cold salad when I considered making a quick soup - and here it is!  It was wonderfully warm, sweet and spicy.

This is a simple soup that I threw together at the last minute from a few things I had laying around.  Obviously, if you don't have red bell peppers, this won't work but the other ingredients aren't required and can easily be substituted with something else.

Ingredients: makes about 6- 1/2 cup servings

4 red bell peppers

1/2 onion - I had purple laying around

1/2 cup salsa

1/4 cup cashew

2 tsp salt

black pepper

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin powder

water

1.  Wash and half bell pepper and lay on a sheet of aluminum foil on a sheet tray along with the half onion.

2.  Broil until at least half of the pepper skin is burnt and blistering.  You may need to move the tray and or peppers around to get a bit of even charring.

3.  Set tray aside and let veggies cool for a few minutes.

4.  When cool enough to handle, remove the charred skin with fingers.  No need to be OCD, just whatever you can easily remove.  And also remove the end or core of the onion.

5.  Place the veggies, salsa, spices, and cashew in a blender container.  Add enough water to come half way up the veggies.

6.  Blend soup ingredients for a minute or so.  Pour into a medium sauce pan, bring to a simmer, stir, taste and reseason if needed.

Prepping peppers and onion for the broiler

After broiling for 15 minutes

Remove the charred skin

Main ingredients - salsa, peppers in blender container, and spices

Secret soup ingredient - 1/4 cup cashews (1 oz/28 grams)

Dinner for 4, with variation.  My plate is upper right.

 As it was Breakfast night for dinner, we also had eggs and toast.  This was fabulous, warm, creamy and sweet-spicy, I'll be making this again.

Astrid

PS: Weight Watcher's PointsPus - 5 points (cashews) for the pan or about 1 points for a 1/2 cup serving or about 1/6 of the pan.