Smoked Vegan Red Pepper Soup
Smoked Vegan Red Pepper Soup made with homemade smoked red peppers and garlic, slow-smoked over wood chips and apple juice. The flavors in this soup are out of this world. And this soup is a two-in-one deal – it doubles as a hot soup in the cold months and serve cold as a gazpacho in the Summer.
Hi guys, It’s been too long and I’ve missed you! J and I just moved into our new home, a bit further South in the city of Toronto and have been busy painting, putting together IKEA furniture (okay, let’s get real, J has done most of the putting together, I put together one IKEA lamp and somehow managed to break it… Lol!) and settling into our new home. We moved to Toronto from Belgium this past September and have been living with my family until now. We moved into our new spot this past week and it’s been fun settling into our new apartment and designing it exactly the way we like. We painted our walls from the apartment yellow (why do all apartment buildings insist on painting the walls that yellow color in Toronto? Beats me.) to a cool and cozy grey. We bought a lovely big round table for dinners and even though we still have a few boxes to go through, it already feels like home.
But back to this Smoked Vegan Red Pepper Soup. I’ve been planning on sharing the soup with you guys since I made it a couple weeks ago. This soup is all kinds of awesome guys. You can’t beat the flavour of slow-smoked red peppers and garlic. You even keep ALL the seeds in the peppers for this recipe, making this soup super easy to throw together and THAT much more flavorful!
The croutons on top are smoked tofu. I buy my smoked tofu at the grocery store here and guys, my whole family is addicted to this stuff. I actually wake up in the morning craving smoked tofu! Fry it in the morning for the easiest vegan tofu bacon. In this Smoked Vegan Red Pepper Soup, the smoked tofu is cut into cubes and toasted until super crispy. Garnish croutons on top of the soup and serve warm (or cold!).
I love serving this Smoked Vegan Red Pepper Soup when people come over because the flavor is so incredibly unique and simple. If there are any leftovers, the soup tastes even better the next day after the flavors have mingled overnight. If you guys do make this Smoked Red Pepper Soup at home, leave your feedback below, snap a photo and tag me #CearasKitchen on Instagram! I love hearing from you! #EatHappyLiveHappy
Smoked Red Pepper Soup
- Total Time: 1 hour 45 mins
- Yield: 6 soup bowls 1x
Description
A creamy and extremely flavorful Smoked Red Pepper Soup. The wood chips and apple juice used to smoke the red peppers and garlic make this soup incredibly tasty. Serve hot with toasted smoked tofu croutons or cold as a gazpacho in the Summer. If you do not have a smoker, you can use a BBQ to smoke the red peppers and garlic.
Ingredients
- 5 red peppers
- 1 cup apple juice
- 1 head garlic
- 2 tbsp olive oil or vegetable broth
- 2 white onions, chopped
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 – 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 4–5 cups vegetable broth
- Chipotle Tabasco
- Smoked tofu (210 grams, I used thisbrand)
Instructions
- Prepare the smoker by placing wood chips into the bottom of the smoker and pouring apple juice into the bottom pan. The apple juice will evaporate when cooking and give the peppers the perfect flavor. Cover and warm the smoker up over high heat.
- Remove the green top of red peppers. Leave the seeds in the peppers – they give extra flavor to the soup.
- Place the red peppers and entire head of garlic on top of the smoker. Cover and smoke the red peppers and garlic for 1 hour in the smoker until soft on high heat over stove.
- Preheat oven to 400F/205C. Lightly oil a baking sheet. Cut tofu into cubes and place smoked tofu cubes on the pan.
- Toast the smoked tofu in the oven for 10-15 minutes until crispy.
- In a large pot, over medium-high heat, sauté onions with olive oil or vegetable broth until translucent. Peel the skin off the garlic. Add the smoked garlic and red peppers to the pot.
- Add smoked paprika, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to the pot. Sauté for a couple minutes and add 4 cups of vegetable broth. Stir.
- Remove from the heat and blend soup together until creamy with an immersion or standard blender. Add extra vegetable broth until soup reaches desired thickness.
- Pour soup back in the pot and warm up over medium-high heat. Taste and a couple splashes of chipotle Tabasco and additional salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve warm with toasted smoked tofu croutons on top! In the Summer, leave soup to cool and serve in small cups as a gazpacho.
Notes
1) If you do not have a smoker, you can use a BBQ to smoke the red peppers and garlic. Cook in the BBQ for 30 minutes until soft. If you do not have a BBQ, try this Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Soup!
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour 30 mins
- Category: Appetizer
