Roasted Pepper and Corn Soup

Back home in Chennai, rainy days would give me a total craving for Chilli Bajji and a cup of hot coffee. Specially the chilli bajjis from Elliots Beach. Mmmm what could be better... How I bitterly miss my dear motherland!

Anyway, the absence of Elliots beach has forced me to look elsewhere for rainy-day-comfort food. So these days, my favorite thing to eat on a gloomy cold rainy evening is - Soup! I recently discovered this delicious soup recipe but it didn't really make a fan out of me until I modified the recipe to suit my palette. You can still try and make it the original way - I have included a link to it at the end of my recipe.

Oh and i learnt how to broil peppers in this recipe! Yay! Look at these beautiful broiled lovelies:

Ingredients:

2 bell peppers (red, yellow or orange, but not green)
1/2 cup Frozen Corn
4 tablespoons olive oil
I medium yellow onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbsp chopped basil leaves
1 tbsp red pepper flakes
2 cups water or Vegetable/Chicken stock
Salt and Pepper as needed
1/2 cup Croutons

This recipe serves 2

1. Broil the 2 peppers in a broiler or a gas stovetop. If you are using a stovetop just hold the peppers one at a time over the open flame till the skin starts to char and turn black. Keep rotating the pepper until its covered with the black soot. Place the charred peppers in a large bowl, cover it and let it cool until the peppers are OK to handle. Then remove blackened skin using your fingers, stem, and seeds by cutting into quarters.
2. Add olive oil to a large pot or pan. Once the oil is hot, sauté the onions and garlic until soft. Then add in the corn and sauté for a while until the corn is cooked. Add 2 cups of water/stock, as desired. I use water because i don't like the taste of stock and I am more than happy to kiss the sodium goodbye! Add the peeled red/orange/yellow pepper, basil leaves. crushed red pepper flakes, fresh ground black pepper and salt.
3. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook, covered, for 15 minutes. If the mixture looks too dry, add another splash of water, but not too much, otherwise your soup will become very runny and not thick.
4. Turn off the heat and allow to cool just a bit. Pour the mixture into a blender and blend until smooth and thick. Top with a ground black pepper, a few croutons and enjoy!

Shout out to the original recipe, with many thanks :  Click Here