roasted eggplant and red pepper soup

Occasionally, I get a hankering for eggplant. Don’t ask me why. I felt this urge last week and thought, ‘Roasted eggplant and red peppers would make an excellent soup!’ So I bought some at the grocery store and stashed them in the crisper for a couple of days. Then the meteorologist forecast snow, so I thought, ‘This will be a great day to make that roasted eggplant and red pepper soup!’ And so I did.

This is super easy recipe, but a little bit time-consuming; hence, its a great project for a snowy day. This recipe is easily scalable and freezes well. Also, if you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can easily make this in a regular soup pot on the stove.

Ingredients:

2 medium eggplants

2 medium red bell peppers

1/2 of a medium-sized head of cauliflower

1.5 cups vegetable broth

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp Berbere spice mix (optional)

1 tsp Kosher, smoked or pink Himalayan salt

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

1 Tbs coconut aminos or soy sauce

1, 14-oz can fire-roasted tomatoes

6 oz full-fat coconut milk

Instructions:

  1. Roast the eggplant and the red bell pepper for 1 hour, or until soft in the oven or on a hot grill.

  2. Cook cauliflower florets in the instant pot on high pressure, with the vegetable broth for 8 minutes.

  3. After allowing the roasted veggies to cool, slice off ends of eggplants and peel (you can easily pull off the skin with your fingers). Core the bell peppers.

  4. Transfer the broth and cauliflower from the instant pot to the carafe of a Vitamix blender or the bowl of a food processor. Add the eggplant meat and the peppers.

  5. Pulse until smooth.

  6. Pour half of the contents of the blender or food processor back into the instant pot.

  7. Add the tomatoes and coconut milk to the remainder of vegetables in the blender or food processor. Add the salt, pepper and spices. Pulse until smooth.

  8. Return contents of blender or food processor to the instant pot. Stir well, to combine the 2 different batches of soup.

  9. Replace lid of instant pot and slow cook for 2-2.5 hours to reheat.