Red Pepper and Lime Soup

Since we had an abundance of bell peppers and cayenne peppers (shown) in our CSA boxes from "Cooper's CSA Farm & Maze", I decided to whip up this Mexican-inspired soup!!!  I added an entire, fresh, large cayenne pepper (sans seeds and ribs!) to the double batch of this soup I made, so it has quite a kick!!!  Use fresh limes for this recipe as the bottled variety doesn't have as fresh a taste.  I decided to pressure can my soup (as you can see I also made potato leek soup!)  so that I have fresh, homemade soup on hand when the weather turns really chilly!!

RED PEPPER & LIME SOUP

Ingredients:

1 large onion, chopped

4 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 small fresh red chili, sliced

3 tbsp tomato paste

3 3/4 cups vegetable stock

Finely grated rind and juice of 1 lime

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Cook the onion and bell peppers gently in the oil in a large saucepan, stirring occasionally, over medium high heat until they are softened but not coloured.
• Stir in the garlic, chili and tomato paste.  Add half the stock, then bring to a boil.  Cover and simmer gently for about 10 minutes.
• Let cool slightly then puree either with an immersion blender, or in a food processor or blender.  Return to the the pot and add the remaining stock, the lime rind and juice, and salt and pepper.
• Bring the soup back to the boil, then serve immediately!