Day 8-Leftover mashed potato soup with roasted red pepper coulis

Well it is the day after our Thanksgiving supper, and our fridge is jam packed with leftovers. I am dreading the thought of adding yet another leftover to the fridge. My friend Charlene had mentioned something about her mother-in-law using mashed potatoes in a soup. Brilliant I thought, I will just make a potato soup.

This potato soup took me no time to whip up. Which was great because I have crap load of dishes to do up, and we are attending Darien's high school reunion tonight. I wanted to make the potato soup a little fancier, so I made a red pepper coulis to go on top.

Red pepper coulis is really easy to make, I found this recipe on the Food Network. All you need to do is roast two red peppers-my trick is place them on top of our gas burners, and rotate the pepper every few minutes to char the skin. However, if you have an electric stove you can roast the peppers in the oven, but it will take around 30-40 minutes. When the peppers are sufficiently roasted, rub off all the burnt parts and remove the seeds. In a blender or food processor, blend the peppers with 3/4 cup canola oil, 1/4 red wine vinegar and add a dash of salt and pepper.

Leftover Mashed potato soup with roasted red pepper coulis
by Krystal Ford

3 cups of Mashed potatoes
4 cups of chicken stock
1/2 onion chopped
Pepper to taste

Directions

Bring chicken stock to a boil and add chopped onions. Simmer until onions become soft. Add the mashed potatoes. I must emphasize right now that these must be homemade, none of that mashed potatoes from a box crap. I wont pretend to be a food purist, since I am currently using store bought stock, but please for love of food do not taint your soup with hydrolyzed potato pectin -or whatever it is they put in boxed mashed potatoes. Simmer soup for 5 minutes. Turn off heat and blend using the ever handy-hand blender.

Make red pepper coulis according to the above instructions, and place in a plastic squeeze bottle. If you do not have one (you really should) you can transform a plastic Ziplock bag into a pipping bags, by cutting one corner- make it a very small cut-and fill the bag with the red pepper coulis.

Using the plastic bottle/impromptu pipping bag, squiggle some lines, make smiley faces,or pretend your Picasso and make abstract incomprehensible art, on top of your potato soup

Bon Appetit!