This soup came together through experimentation and guilt. When I saw a recent recipe for roasted shishito peppers, I knew that I had to make it myself. One week after buying the peppers, however, they languished on the counter, the casualty of a busy week. Now what? So I looked around the kitchen. One giant head of cauliflower. Leftover chives and an extra baked potato. Cold and rainy day outside. Sounded like soup to me!
I was surprised to find that the peppers did not yield as spicy a soup as I expected. Add a splash of hot sauce such as Tapatio to each bowl if your company likes it spicy.Servings: 4-6
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Break down cauliflower to florets; leave more stem if desired. Toss with 2 tablespoons olive oil in a bowl and spread on cookie sheet. Roast in oven for 10 minutes. While roasting the cauliflower, remove stems from peppers, split lengthwise, and scrape out seeds, discarding the seeds. Toss peppers with remaining olive oil and add to cookie sheet with cauliflower and roast for 10 minutes (thus, cauliflower roasts for 20 minutes and peppers for 10 minutes). Once cauliflower starts to brown, remove from oven and set aside to cool. Split baked potato, hollow out, and discard skins.
Transfer cauliflower to a large blender and add 1 cup milk. Pulse until pureed, then add to large stock pot. Puree peppers with 1 cup milk, add to pot. Puree potato with 1 cup milk, add to pot. Add chopped chives to pot, with vegetable stock and remaining cup of milk, grind in salt and pepper. Bring mixture to just short of a boil, then mix in 1/4 cup of low-fat mozzarella cheese and reduce to simmer for 45-60 minutes. Stir occasionally to bring soup off the sides of the pot. Serve with remaining chives, loosely chopped and sprinkled on top.