It seems like everyone around us are sick!!  Its been a long winter and with the way it is in Newfoundland we often get four seasons this time of the year.  So the warm, wet, cold and snow is really sending everyone into cold/flu mania!!

My Fam Jam was sick as well (thankfully all better now… **KNOCK ON WOOD**) and when they are I always resort back to the old fashion ways and make soup!  For some reason, it just makes us feel so good!  I typically would make Chicken Noodle Soup but it seemed like the kids (hubby too) were sick forever so i also made a delicious Roasted Red Pepper Soup.  It was marvellous!  You can make it as spicy or mild as you like and the heat from it just seemed to open airways and energize everyone.  We didn’t make ours too spicy because the kids are not a big fan but it seemed like it made them feel really good and it was a nice switch up from the norm.

Red Peppers are sometimes called one of the “super foods” because of all there health benefits. So why not try and add them into your family’s diet… this soup allows you to get them into your kids easily without fuss!  Kids love soup 🙂 I recently read in article online (chatelaine.com) that explained some of the benefits of red peppers… here are somethings I read:

-Red peppers are loaded with vitamin C. Besides being a powerful antioxidant, vitamin C is also needed for the proper absorption of iron.

-Red bell peppers are a great source of vitamin B6 and magnesium. This vitamin and mineral combination helps decrease anxiety, especially related to PMS (hello?!?) . Vitamin B6 is also a natural diuretic, so get ’em in ya to help reduce bloating and prevent against hypertension… why not??  we all want to be less BLOATED… ugh!!

– Red bell peppers are packed with antioxidants. The combined effects of vitamin A and C and lycopene.  This combination in the red bell pepper becomes superfood. Red peppers are one of the highest veggies in lycopene, which has been successfully tested in the prevention of many cancers including prostate and lung. 

-Burn more calories with red bell peppers. Recent research has shown that sweet red peppers can turn up your system to burn more calories.  Red bell peppers do not contain capsaicin, which is what makes peppers hot and causes us to sweat, but they do have a mild thermogenic action that increases our metabolism without increasing our heart rate and blood pressure like the hot peppers do.  BONUS!!!!

 

Roasted Red Pepper Soup:

Ingredients:

3lbs Red Bell Peppers, halved and cleaned (8-10) I didn’t have all red peppers so i used yellow (2) and orange(1) as well!

5 Cloves of garlic, in peel

2 cups Onion, chopped

2tbsp Olive Oil

1Tbsp Italian Seasoning

4 cups Chicken Stock

1 tsp Hot Sauce

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1-2 tbsp rice vinegar

Directions:

1. Half the peppers and remove all the seeds and membranes.  Press them flat with your hands and lay them on a foil lined, rimmed baking sheet.  Place the garlic cloves on the baking sheet.

2. Set the oven on broil and raise the rack to the upper position. Broil the red peppers and garlic for 15 minutes.

3. Once the skin has blackened, remove them from the oven and place in a large zip bag to steam (10mins)

4. Preheat large pot to medium heat. Add oil, seasoning and onions.  Cook for 10 minutes, until onions are soft.

5. Add broth, hot sauce and salt and pepper. Squeeze the garlic cloves out of the peels into the pot.

6. Peel the charred skin off the peppers and place win the pot.

7. Reduce the heat, cover and cook for another 20mins.

8. Then using a hand help immersion blender or standard blender, blend until smooth. **if you are using a blender be sure to remove the lid and cover with a towel instead- this will allow heat to vent without a big mess**

9. Add the vinegar and salt if needed.

10. You can add a little sour cream or plain greek yogurt to mild out the spice and heat.  Just thin it out with a little milk and swirl it over the top!!

This recipe I found online (www.aspicyperspective.com) and made some changes to make it more suited to our likes!  Feel free to do the same!

I hope this helps with the cold and flu season!  We really enjoy it and even froze some to have later.

(check out:  http://www.chatelaine.com/health/diet/five-health-benefits-of-red-peppers/ to read more about the power of the Red Pepper and they also have a couple recipes there for red peppers :))