Red Bell Pepper Soup With White Cheddar Swirl

Red bell peppers are a favorite in my house. The boys and I love them raw and I love them in my morning eggs.

They are in season all summer but for some reason every fall they get really cheap around here. I picked up a huge bag with some whoppers in it last week.

I bought so many I realized there was no way we were going to eat them all in time, so yesterday I decided to try a quick soup idea.

The result was a warm bowl of heaven and The Laughing Cow White Cheddar really added that something special.

Of course I'm the only one in my house that will eat something like this. I can only hope that one day the boys just start to appreciate my yummy creations.

A girl can dream, right?

Here's what I did …

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 small sweet onion, chopped (~200g)
• Kosher salt
• 4 large red bell peppers, chopped (mine ended up to be 775 g when chopped)
• 1 small hot pepper (optional; you can use hot pepper sauce, too),seeded and chopped
• 32 oz (4 cups) chicken stock (use veggie for vegetarian)
• ½ tsp dried Thyme
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 wedge of The Laughing Cow White Cheddar for each serving

Heat the olive oil in a soup pot over medium-high heat.

Sauté the onion with a pinch of kosher salt.

Add in all the chopped peppers.

Cook them for a few minutes. I tried to get a few to scorch but my pan was too crowded.

Add the chicken stock and spices.

Bring everything to a boil and then lower to medium and cook until the peppers are nice and soft, around 20-30 minutes.

Transfer the soup to the blender or use an immersion blender to puree.

Marvel at your bowl of awesomeness! (At least that's what I did.)

Right before you are ready to serve, take a wedge of The Laughing Cow White Cheddar and 1 tbsp of warm water and mix together until smooth. This makes an amazing cheddar sauce.

It may not seem like the cheese will get smooth but just keep stirring. It'll get there!

I got creative and drizzled it in a swirl pattern using a spoon.

I've never done anything like that before but it was so fun and easy to do. Plus, you eat with your eyes first, right?

I decided to sprinkle a little dried cilantro on for effect and it made it even prettier.

The recipe yielded exactly 7 cups of soup. I have 2 cups of soup in the bowl above. For ease of calculating I'll provide the nutritional info per cup and then you can just add The Laughing Cow wedge. Remember, I base all WWP calculations on total nutritional information.

Approx Nutritional Information per serving

Servings	Amt per Serving
7	1 cup
Calories	Fat	Fiber	WWPs
70	2g	7g	old: 1	new: 3
Sugar	Sat Fat	Carbs	Protein
11g	0g	20g	6g

Disclosure: I've partnered with The Laughing Cow. Click here for more info and click here to see all my ideas using the Laughing Cow!