Make Ahead

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce (or Soup!) with Creme Fraiche, Lime and Cumin

August 30, 2010
0
0 Ratings
  • Serves 1 cup sauce (or soup)
Author Notes

This little sauce is easy to make and can have loads of uses from being spread on a sausage sandwich or drizzled as a sauce on roast pork, grilled steak. or over some roasted potatoes. The sauce has a nice blend of sweet from the peppers, tart from the lime, and spice from the cumin. Honestly, I can also just eat it all by itself and call it a cold soup, although that's not what it started as :-) —TheWimpyVegetarian

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Ingredients
  • 2 red bell peppers
  • 2 tablespoons creme fraiche
  • 1/2 lime - juice and zest
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (or to taste)
  • 1/4 teaspoon sugar (or to taste)
  • 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
Directions
  1. Roast the peppers until skin is lightly blackened. Pop them in a bag for a few minutes, and remove the skin, stem and seeds. Place in a blender.
  2. Toast the cumin seeds until lightly fragrant and grind in a spice / coffee grinder. I keep 1 for coffee and 1 just for spices since my husband got really tired of making coffee that had all kinds of spices infused in it.....
  3. Add the toasted, ground cumin seeds and all other ingredients to the red peppers in the blender and puree until very smooth.
  4. Pour into a serving dish and take a big spoonful for yourself, just to make sure the flavors are balanced of course. Serve with meat or veggies.
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17 Reviews

aliyaleekong September 3, 2010
Delicious! I love the thought of the creme fraiche as balance and the slight bitter from cumin.
TheWimpyVegetarian September 3, 2010
Thanks aliyaleekong! I hope you try it. I'm making your baby back ribs with pomegranate molasses sauce this weekend! Can't wait to try them.
aliyaleekong September 4, 2010
Fantastic! Let me know how the ribs go!
testkitchenette September 3, 2010
I love these kinds of versatile purees! This sounds delicious and will be gracing my kitchen table soon!
TheWimpyVegetarian September 3, 2010
Thanks testkitchenette! Me too! I made it again yesterday and we had it as soup last night - but it used it as a spread on a sandwich earlier in the week. And it's really easy to make. The most time-consuming thing is to peel the skin off the roasted peppers. Hope you like it too!
Oui, C. September 1, 2010
Ooohhh....where did I put my straw?
TheWimpyVegetarian September 2, 2010
Thanks Steve :-)
Lizthechef September 1, 2010
Looks terrific - my recipe is for a hot soup and this sure sounds wonderful as a cold soup.
TheWimpyVegetarian September 2, 2010
Thanks so much Liz! Yes, the recipes I always see are for hot soups and i love them all since I love red peppers so much. This recipe is not one that started out as a soup - I just knew the flavor combination I was looking for. It wasn't until it was done that I realized it would work as a nice cold soup - like a first course. I'm actually going to work a little more on it tomorrow deliberately as a soup to see if I would change anything before the deadline. I'm toying with either some white onion or garlic but don't want to mask the clean flavors that are there right now. And really, I just want some more of it and the batch I made is all gone :-)
cheese1227 September 1, 2010
Love the flavor combo on this one. And it's a really pretty color.
TheWimpyVegetarian September 1, 2010
Thanks cheese1227! Hope you like it if you make it!
AppleAnnie August 31, 2010
A longtime restaurant in Cleveland's Little Italy used to feature a simple red pepper soup, and it was heavenly. I was disappointed to learn they dropped it from the menu last year. Now thanks to ChezSuzanne I have an idea of how to make it at home! (and this one sounds even better!)
TheWimpyVegetarian September 1, 2010
Wow! Thanks so much AppleAnnie! I used the rest of it up today as a spread for a grilled ham and cheese panini, but want to make some more for soup tomorrow.
mrslarkin August 31, 2010
I see the magic ingredient - creme fraiche! Sounds very delicious!
TheWimpyVegetarian August 31, 2010
Thanks mrslarkin! I love probably just about anything with creme fraiche :-) My husband thinks it needs some garlic, so it looks like I'll be testing that idea out next.
gingerroot August 31, 2010
YUM! This sounds fantastic. I love your flavor combination and like you, I think I would enjoy this, as is - delicious cold soup!
TheWimpyVegetarian August 31, 2010
Thanks gingerroot! It's really yummy - I'm having more today.