Red Pepper Bisque

I've never been a picky eater, but the one food I could never stand was bell peppers. I hated them up until last year when Jacob and I made the now-infamous "Ann's Spaghetti," which is basically just Italian sausage, green peppers, onion, garlic, and diced tomatoes with spaghetti. DELICIOUS. I was a little wary of the green peppers at first and pushed them aside, but then Jacob labeled me a "picker" and not wanting to be associated with that word in any way, I gave one a try. Now, they are my favorite part of that recipe. Here's to trying new things, and growing up a little each time.

The first time I had red pepper bisque was my first Valentine's day dinner with Jacob. His mom generously lent us her kitchen to make dinner and the red pepper bisque was already made and waiting in the fridge. Jacob grilled some lamb chops and we made an orzo pasta salad with spinach and feta. What a good meal. Since then we've made the orzo together ad nauseum. It makes an easy summer meal. And this fall, we got the recipe to red pepper bisque.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
5 medium red bell peppers, diced
1 Tbsp. dried thyme leaves
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 large can (49.5 oz.) chicken broth
1/2 cup uncooked white rice
3/4 cup half and half

Directions:
Melt butter in large stockpot. Add onions, garlic and peppers; saute over medium heat until vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes. Add thyme, pepper flakes to taste, chicken stock, and rice. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes; cool slightly.



Process soup in small batches in a blender or food processor, until mixture becomes a fine puree. Return soup to sauce pan and cook over low heat until heated through. Add a little of the half and half when you heat to serve.



Every time I make this it makes me wish I had an immersion blender. It'd be so much easier. I always make a mess trying to transfer the hot soup into a tiny blender and then to a separate bowl. But what else would I use an immersion blender for? Probably not much.

The soup has a little kick to it so it went really well with creamy brie.

If you want to get fancy, divide the recipe in half and make a half-batch with yellow peppers and a half-batch with red peppers. Then when you're ready to serve, put each in a measuring cup, or other container with a pour spout and pour both at the same time into one bowl, from opposite sides. The result is a bowl with two soups side-by-side. You can go even further by using a toothpick or chopstick to drag the red to the yellow side, yellow to red side, etc. You might end up with something resembling a marbled cheesecake brownie. It's really fancy. So fancy that I don't even do it. Just an idea.