Roasted Red Pepper Bisque

Martin Luther King Jr. Day. No school. Tyler and Justin shoveled the driveway, which is a sentence that sounds simple and is actually a forty-five minute production involving two boys, two shovels, one driveway, and approximately three hundred arguments about territory, technique, and who got the bigger shovel. The bigger shovel is heavier and moves more snow and is therefore both the prize and the punishment, and the economics of shoveling are lost on no one in this house.

I took the day off from hauling. Rare for a Monday, but the cold was extreme and the loads were light and the dispatcher said take the day, and I took it, because taking a day is something I have been learning to do since Larry died, since the lesson of Larry's death — that the road takes and takes and you drive until you cannot drive — has been sitting in my chest like a stone. I will not drive until I cannot drive. I will take the days. I will sit at the kitchen table and drink coffee and watch the boys shovel through the window and feel the specific luxury of being warm and still and inside.

Josie made snow cream — that thing you make when there's fresh snow and no one is going to school: a bowl of clean snow, milk, sugar, vanilla. It is not ice cream. It is a prayer that children make to winter, and the prayer says: I accept you, winter, I will eat your product, I will find the sweetness in your cold. Josie ate two bowls. Her lips were blue. She said it was delicious. Both statements were true.

I made beef vegetable soup — the big pot, the rainy-day soup, the snow-day soup, the soup that simmers all morning while the world is white and cold and still and the only sound is the simmer and the scrape of shovels and the voice of a ten-year-old asking for more snow cream. The soup was thick with carrots and potatoes and corn and green beans and tomatoes and stew meat, and the thickness was the warmth, and the warmth was the day.

The beef vegetable soup fed everyone that day, but the soup I keep coming back to — the one I make when I want warmth that feels a little more like intention and a little less like a snow-day scramble — is this roasted red pepper bisque. It has that same quality the big pot always has: it simmers quietly, it fills the kitchen with something good, and it asks almost nothing of you except that you stay inside and let it work. On a day when staying inside was the whole gift, that felt exactly right.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 35 minutes | Total Time: 50 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

4 large red bell peppers
1 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon sugar (optional, to balance acidity)
Fresh parsley or a swirl of cream, for serving

Instructions

Roast the peppers. Place whole red bell peppers directly on a baking sheet under the broiler, turning every 5 minutes, until charred and softened on all sides, about 20 minutes total. Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let steam for 10 minutes. Peel, seed, and roughly chop.
Saute the aromatics. In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Add the chopped onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and translucent, about 6–7 minutes. Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook for 1 minute more.
Build the soup. Add the roasted peppers, broth, smoked paprika, thyme, salt, and pepper to the pot. Stir to combine. Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes to let the flavors come together.
Blend until smooth. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup directly in the pot until completely smooth, or carefully transfer in batches to a countertop blender. Return to the pot over low heat.
Finish with cream. Stir in the heavy cream and taste for seasoning, adding the teaspoon of sugar if the soup tastes too sharp. Warm through gently over low heat for 3–4 minutes; do not boil.
Serve. Ladle into bowls and top with a swirl of cream or a pinch of fresh parsley. Good with crusty bread or alongside a grilled cheese.

Nutrition (per serving)

Roasted Red Pepper Bisque — The Soup That Holds the Snow Day Together