Roasted Eggplant and Pepper Curry Soup

I have always had a serious love affair with eggplant, but this purple delicious vegetable has not always complied with me in past cooking attempts. I've cut it up, salted, put it on a strainer, etc. etc. and it always came out a little bitter and mostly soggy. Yum. Well - I've finally found a recipe that I successfully mastered the eggplant and I'm so excited. I had bought one from my grocery store and was thinking of ways to cook it, and decided that I wanted to cook a soup to bring with me to work the next day. From there I decided I was going to roast that mutha and then immersion blend the hell outta it. Thus we have...

Roasted Eggplant and Pepper Curry Soup

Ingredients:
- 1 eggplant
- 1 bell pepper (I used orange)
- 2 tbsp olive oil (more if needed)
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 tbsp garlic, minced
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 tsp curry
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- Handful of chopped parsley
- 1/2 cup coconut milk
- 1/2 tsp lemon juice
- Kosher salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. After chopping bell pepper and eggplant, toss in bowl with olive oil and a little Kosher salt. Lay vegetables on covered baking sheet with aluminum foil that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Roast for 25-30 minutes.

2. While eggplant and bell pepper is roasting, sauté onions with olive oil until translucent. Add garlic and sauté for 30 seconds - 1 minute. Add broth, spices and parsley. Then add roasted vegetables. Can simmer for 5 minutes or however long you want (I let mine simmer for around 2 hours).

3. After soup has simmered, use either immersion blender, regular blender or food processor to puree soup until it reaches desired consistency. Return to pot and stir in coconut milk and lemon juice.

Roasted Cauliflower and Bacon Soup

This soup is perfectly hearty with warm bacon and roasted cauliflower. I've been putting coconut milk in everything I make recently and this was no exception - you could substitute with a little bit of heavy cream or even milk if you don't have any on hand. Enjoy!

Roasted Cauliflower and Bacon Soup

Ingredients:

- 1/2 roasted cauliflower
- 1/2 shallot
- 3 slices bacon, diced
- 2 cloves garlic
- 3 green onions, chopped
- 1 tsp honey
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp rosemary
- Dash red pepper flakes
- 2 bay leaves

Recipe:
1. Roast cauliflower. I usually use this recipe as a basis to how I roast my cauliflower. If I don't have wine or any stock on hand, I usually just use water and it turns out just the same. You'll end with up a juicy cauliflower with a beautiful golden roasted finish.

2. Drizzle about 1 tsp of olive oil into pot and let it heat up. Once hot, add shallots and cook until they start browning. Add garlic and bacon then sauté until the meat starta becoming a little crispy.

3. Add honey and chives and sauté for a few seconds. Remove half of bacon mixture from pot and stir in coconut milk, bay leaves and spices.

4. Once boiling, add half of cauliflower florets to pot. Let the mixture simmer for about 15 minutes. Just make sure it's been long enough for the cauliflower to easily be passed through the mixer. After removing the bay leaves, I used a hand blender to blend mine, but it can also easily be done in a food processor.

5. Once the soup has become creamy, add back the other half of the bacon and cauliflower. You could also leave some out to garnish! Stir and let it simmer for a few minutes and then serve (I put a little cheddar cheese on top of mine).