Roasted Red Pepper & Borlotti Bean Soup
Roasted Red Pepper & Borlotti Bean Soup makes use of economical and easy to use peppers from a jar plus tinned beans. With the addition of vegetables like onion, carrot and celery it’s a nutritious, vibrant soup with the warming heat of a little chilli and smoked paprika. Eat with a scattering of crunchy homemade garlic croutons.
I can’t remember an Autumn when I’ve enjoyed so many different soups. As I’ve written elsewhere, it started off when I had a bad cold at the beginning of October and just craved it. But even after I got better, the craze continued. This wonderful Roasted Red Pepper & Borlotti Bean Soup is the latest, tasty result.
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Roasted Red Peppers
While you might think of red peppers as a late Summer food, countries that produce them preserve that sunshine for later use. Methods include drying them (as with Spanish ñora peppers) or grilling/roasting and packing in oil.
These days you’ll find big jars of roasted peppers quite easily, most often red but sometimes yellow and red together. While for a Summer salad of roasted peppers I prefer to prep my own as the texture and flavour are better, in soups I really don’t think it’s worth the trouble.
Jarred peppers can be pretty good value too. I pay around £2 for a 450 gram jar. Don’t buy those smaller jars sold as antipasto though – they’ll work out very expensive.
You’ll need a whole big jar of peppers for Roasted Red Pepper & Borlotti Bean Soup. After draining, it should give you around 320 grams. You’ll probably need three to four big fresh peppers if you prefer to roast and skin them yourself.
Borlotti Beans
You could use almost any beans in this soup. I chose borlotti, a variety of kidney bean, simply for a change.
Borlotti beans are probably most used in Italy and I suppose you could think of this as an Italian soup. But the red pepper, and the smoked paprika I flavour it with, also say ‘Spain’ to me.
The pretty speckling and colour of fresh borlotti is unfortunately lost once cooked. But the light brown beans have a meatyish flavour and go slightly creamy when broken down.
I’ve used tinned beans, but you could soak and boil dried beans if you prefer. You’ll need the equivalent of a standard sized tin which gives around 230 grams once drained.
Making Roasted Red Pepper & Borlotti Bean Soup
The soup is made in the same way as virtually every other soup or stew recipe I’ve posted.
You start off by softening vegetables (onion, carrot, celery, garlic) in olive oil. Next the chopped peppers and the beans go in along with the smoked paprika and some chilli flakes. If you prefer fresh chilli then sauté it, finely chopped, with the rest of the vegetables.
Along with the stock (I prefer chicken, but you could use vegetable, in which case the soup is entirely plant-based) I add a little tomato puree and Balsamic vinegar for balancing acidity. A pinch of sugar rounds things off, but you can leave that out if you like.
Then it’s just a matter of simmering the soup until all the vegetables are soft and tender. This will take around fifteen minutes or so.
Before serving, I like to go in with my stick blender and partly whizz up the soup. I think it’s much nicer with a little texture rather than completely smooth, so I only give it a few seconds.
Serving Roasted Red Pepper & Borlotti Bean Soup
I think a handful of crunchy, homemade garlic croutons goes perfectly with this perky-yet-soothing soup. I keep odds and ends of crusty bread in a bag in the freezer, ready to cube to make croutons or make into crumbs as needed.
If you’ve never made croutons before, take a look at Creamy White Bean Soup which shows you how. To accompany Roasted Red Pepper & Borlotti Bean Soup, I’d just leave out the rosemary from that crouton recipe.
I sometimes like a bit of grated cheese to melt into my bowl. A scattering of parsley makes a nice contrast of colour against the deep orange red of the soup.
All that’s left to do then is dig in and enjoy this nutritious, comforting and vibrant soup.
Roasted Red Pepper & Borlotti Bean Soup
Roasted Red Pepper & Borlotti Bean Soup uses economical jarred peppers & tinned beans in a vibrant, warming soup with a hint of chilli & smoked paprika.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 medium onions skinned, roughly chopped
- 1 medium carrot diced small
- 1 stick celery finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic finely chopped
- salt & black pepper to taste
- 320 g roasted red peppers from a jar drained, seeded, roughly chopped
- 230 g cooked borlotti beans a standard can will give approximately this amount after draining
- 0.5 tsp dried chilli flakes or 1 medium fresh red chilli, finely chopped
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 1 pinch sugar optional
- 2 tsp Balsamic vinegar
- 700 ml stock
To Serve (optional)
- croutons see recipe notes
- fresh parsley finely chopped
- grated cheese
Instructions
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Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan.
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Add the prepared onion, carrot, celery and garlic to the pan, season with a little salt and pepper. Note: if you're using fresh instead of dried chilli, add it now.
Sauté, stirring often, until the vegetables are starting to soften and brown (10-15 min).
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Add the chopped peppers, the drained beans, chilli flakes if using, smoked paprika and tomato puree. Stir until everything is well combined and cook for 1-2 minutes.
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Add the stock, Balsamic vinegar and the sugar if using. Stir, put on a lid and bring to the boil.
Turn down the heat and simmer until the vegetables are very soft and tender (15-20 min).
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Off the heat, use a stick blender to partly blend the soup; leaving some texture gives a better result than a completely smooth soup.
Taste and add more salt or pepper if needed.
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Serve, sprinkled with the croutons, parsley and/or cheese if liked.
Recipe Notes
To make garlic croutons to serve with this soup, see my recipe for Creamy White Bean Soup but leave out the rosemary.