Roasted Poblano Soup
A spicy and warming soup, perfect for the colder temps.
Equipment
- soup or stock pot
- immersion blender, or traditional blender
Ingredients
- 1 pound poblano peppers about 6-7 medium sized poblanos
- 1 medium yellow onion chopped
- 1 medium carrot peeled and chopped
- 1 stalk of celery chopped
- 3 garlic cloves chopped
- 1 cup chopped spinach don't need to measure this out exactly, I just use 1 large bunch of spinach, chopped with stems removed.
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1 cup milk use whatever milk you have on hand, but my preference in this soup is whole milk
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp za'atar if you don't have za'atar, use 1/2 tsp dried oregano and 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
To roast the poblanos:
- I like to roast my poblanos on my outdoor grill, however you can absolutely do them inside your oven. On the grill, I place the poblanos over medium heat, turning every few minutes until their skins are completely charred. This usually takes about 15 minutes total. Once the skins are charred, I transfer them to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap for at least 30 minutes until they’re cool enough to handle. The covering of plastic wrap makes their skins slide off easily. I remove the stems and seeds, and chop the poblano flesh(doesn’t need to be a uniformed chop as you’re going to blend the soup later)and set the roasted poblanos aside until I’m ready to add them to the soup. If you’re roasting them in your oven, broil them for about 15 minutes, turning once. The skins will char and blacken and the peppers will puff up a little. Once they’re roasted, place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap and follow the steps above. While the peppers are resting, you can chop all your other veggies and get your spices together.
Make the soup:
- In a large soup or stock pot, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat until the oil is hot and shimmering, and to that pot then add the onion, carrot and celery. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- After 5 minutes, to the pot, add the chopped roasted poblanos, spinach, garlic, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, za’atar, salt and pepper. Cook for another 2 minutes, stirring.
- Add the chicken stock and milk and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low-medium and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Using an immersion blender, blend the soup until it’s a creamy consistency and no chunks of veggies appear. If you don’t have an immersion blender, get one! But in this case, you can also use the transfer method to a traditional blender and blend in batches, but be careful not to burn yourself. Once the soup has been blended to your liking consistency, add the sour cream, and stir until well incorporated. At this point, if the soup is a little too spicy for your liking, you can add more sour cream or heavy cream. If you’re serving for guests, I would recommend leaving the soup as-is to this point and allowing each person to add their own desired amount of cream to mellow it out.
- To finish the soup in individual bowls, add a little swirl of crema or heavy cream, some red chile flakes, chopped parsley and a few little chive oil drops (regular oil is fine too).
Notes
This is not a boring soup, but it's also not for everyone. This soup does have some heat kick to it, but poblanos are more flavorful than they are spicy. With that being said, remember to remove ALL possible seeds from the roasted poblanos before chopping them and adding them to the soup. You can always add more heat later but you definitely can't take it out. You can however mellow out the kick by adding a little extra sour cream or heavy cream when serving. I wouldn't mellow out the soup as one giant batch because each diner might prefer a different level of heat. But don't be afraid of the spicy, embrace it. This is a flavorful and belly warming soup that is absolutely perfect as the temps start to come down!