Roasted Red Pepper and Red Curry Soup

I just tested this one tonight, and I think I've got a new favorite soup. Like most of the soups I cook, I used my little slow cooker for this. It takes some time, but it's well worth the wait in my opinion.

Roasted Red Pepper and Red Curry Soup

1 Red Pepper

1 qt Vegetable Broth

1 Tbsp Red Curry Paste

1/4 tsp Crushed Red Pepper

1/4 tsp Whole Cumin Seed

1 cup Mirepoix (1 part celery, 1 part carrot, 2 parts onion)

1/4 cup Red Cooking Wine

Pinch Smoked Paprika, Dried Basil, Dried Oregano

S+P to taste

1. Heat your oven to 400 degrees.

2. Place the red pepper on a cookie sheet, and put in the oven. Roast for about an hour, turning occasionally.

3. About fifteen minutes before your pepper is due to come out begin sweating (cooking over low heat, with a little oil, to get vegetables to release their juices) the mirepoix, add salt to help this process along. Put the broth in your slow cooker and begin heating it.

4. Add the herbs and spices (including the pepper, but not the curry paste) to the mirepoix and stir.

5. When the red pepper is out of the oven, place it in an empty container with a tight fitting lid and allow it to steam for a couple minutes.

6. Take the red pepper out of the container, and strip the skin off of it (the reason for putting it in the container to steam was to make the skin easier to take off of it). Discard the skin.

7. Remove the top of the pepper, and all the seeds you can. Discard these.

8. Cut the pepper into a large dice.

9. Add the cooking wine to the mirepoix, stir, and add all of it to the broth.

10. Add the red pepper and curry paste to the broth, and cook on high for about 2 hours.

11. I like vegetable soups served "restaurant style", which means that they're blended. If you like a more rustic feel to your soups, you can leave off the blending. If you want it blended, blend it now.

12. Enjoy!