Moroccan spiced tomato and red bell pepper soup
This soup was a shot in the dark at first, but ended up being a winner! The blend of roasted bell peppers and tomatoes from the Farmer's Market with mini meatballs, Israeli couscous, moroccan spices, greek yogurt, and a dash of mint made for a tasty soup that's perfect for all seasons! Read on for the story around it, plus the recipe!
A few years back, one of my best friends gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. As many of you know who have kids already (and I will be joining very shortly!), the last thing you feel like doing when taking care of a newborn is making dinner, or any gourmet meal for that matter! So, to help ease the transition for our friends, I thought it would be helpful to make a home-cooked meal for them. I guess I could have gone with something a bit easier, but I had been dying to try my hand at a soup recipe that I had been building in my head for a few weeks prior.
So, that morning, I ventured out to my local Farmer's Market to see what I could find. To my surprise, a couple vendors featured these beautiful, bright red tomatoes and bell peppers that glistened in the sunlight after a morning rain. I picked them up immediately, as well as a sweet onion, red onion, shallot, and some fresh mint, and headed over to the grocery store to pick up additional items that you can't normally find at the Farmer's Market.
I arrived home with my bags of goodies and fresh produce, and went to town experimenting. I wanted the soup to have a layers upon layers of deep flavor to it, so I roasted the tomatoes and bell peppers under the broiler for a bit, and used my beloved blue Le Creuset dutch oven to caramelize some onions and shallots in clarified butter. The key to any soup is to build a tasty base and build in layers of flavor over time. I tend to use shallots, onions, and butter as my go-to starting point, but everyone has their own way of doing things! After I roasted the tomatoes and peppers, I de-skinned them and added them to my pot of caramelized goodness. The aromas that were coming out of this one pot were so amazing that they made the whole house light up with flavor!
From there, I made the mini meatballs. These little morsels of goodness can be made with any kind of ground meat you like, however, I chose ground beef for a little cost savings. I bet they would be equally good, if not better, with ground lamb! While I didn't put garlic in my soup base, I definitely used it here to add a kick of flavor to the meatballs, as well as some of that chopped mint and fresh lemon juice. Bake in the oven until they're cooked throughout, and you've got yourself some perfect mini meatballs!
Needless to say, the soup turned out pretty amazing after all the stewing and love that went into it, and it made for a perfect winter's night meal with our friends and their new baby boy. It's moments in time like these that I'll always treasure and keep to remind me how wonderful life can be when you have tasty food, wonderful company, and a bright future with this new life to look forward to. Hope you enjoy the recipe just as much as we did!
MOROCCAN SPICED TOMATO & RED BELL PEPPER SOUP WITH ISRAELI COUSCOUS & MINI MEATBALLS
Yield: 8-10 servings
INGREDIENTS
For the soup base:
6 red bell peppers, sliced in half
10 medium tomatoes on the vine, sliced in half
1 sweet onion, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
2 tbsp ghee or clarified butter
1 tsp Moroccan Vas el Hanout seasoning
2 cups vegetable broth
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup Israeli couscous
For the mini meatballs:
1 lb ground beef, 85% lean
1/2 red onion, minced
1 tbsp fresh mint, minced
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp ground bread crumbs
1 egg
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
For the yogurt coulis:
1/2 cup whole milk greek yogurt
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp fresh mint, minced
1/4 tsp ground pepper
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat the oven to broil at 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Place halved bell peppers and tomatoes on a baking sheet face down. Place on center rack in oven, and roast for 15 minutes, turning the baking sheet every 5 minutes so that the peppers and tomatoes roast evenly. In the meantime, using a dutch oven or large, heavy bottomed pot, melt the ghee over medium heat. Then add the onion and shallot, and sauté for about 15 minutes over low heat until completely caramelized.
Once the peppers and tomatoes are nicely charred on the outside and tender on the inside, remove from the oven. The skin should easily fall off if you peel it away using your fingers, but make sure to way until they've cooled down a bit! De-skin the tomatoes and bell peppers, and then add them to the pot with the caramelized onions and shallots. Add the Moroccan Vas el Hanout seasoning and vegetable broth to the mixture, and let simmer over medium heat for 30 minutes.
While the mixture is simmering, make the mini meatballs. In a large bowl, add the ground beef, garlic, red onion, mint, bread crumbs, fresh lemon juice, ground pepper, salt, and egg. Mix together until well combined (I like to use my hands!). Take a teaspoon of the mixture at a time and roll into a small ball using your hands, and place on a plate or cutting board. This mixture made about 30 mini meatballs. In a large skillet, melt 1-2 tsp of ghee over medium-high heat. Then place the meatballs in the skillet in even rows, and brown the meatballs on all sides, about 1 minute or so per side, until a golden deep brown. Set aside.
After the base soup mixture has simmered for 30 minutes, blend the mixture together into a puree in the pot using a hand immersion blender. If you don't have a hand blender, you can pour the mixture from the pot into a normal blender and puree it that way. Make sure not to overfill the blender as the hot mixture will create steam as it blends and may overflow! Once the mixture is a smooth puree, add the meatballs to the pot, and mix to coat the meatballs. Simmer on low heat for 1 hour. At the 1 hour mark, stir in the Israeli couscous, and simmer on low heat for 1 more hour. Before serving, season with salt and pepper to taste.
To make the yogurt coulis, mix together the greek yogurt, lemon juice, mint, and ground pepper. Serve a tablespoon sized dollop or swirl of the coulis with each bowl of soup for that extra pop of flavor!