Creamy Jalapeno and Bacon Soup

I really have no idea why I was suddenly inspired to make a soup among all things. If you know anything about me at all, it’s that I have a hard time getting excited by the thought of a bowl of soup being plopped down in front of me, so please forgive me for that. Call me strange I know, but I consider it sort of boring, kind of like a casserole. Again, I’m sorry and I think I will just leave things at that. No offense to anyone who likes boring food…

But back to the story. I was sitting at the table one evening pondering how I could create a recipe that successfully blended three unique things: onion rings, jalapeno poppers, and chili rellenos. I’m not gonna lie; my head hurt a little trying to figure it out. I wanted to substitute Anaheim peppers in place of the jalapeno peppers and stuff it with a mix of Monterey Jack and Pepper Jack cheese before deep frying it in a mixture of flour and Panko breadcrumbs. It would be something to that effect anyway. I was trying to figure out what to call this brand new creation of mine when my brain switched gears and started giving me the ingredients I would need to make a killer new soup. I worked out a couple details and luckily enough, Vanessa was heading to the store so I gave her a list of a few ingredients I would need, and soon enough I was ready to dive in and see how things would turn out.

First up where the potatoes. They needed to be chopped up into squares to be boiled for a little while so they would soften up. This right here is very important though; don’t overcook them! If the potatoes are too soft, it creates all kinds of sad things for everyone. So no overly cooked potatoes. The recipe doesn’t call for mashed potatoes. After they were done, I drained them and got ready to start making the soup.

I knew I wanted to puree some broiled yellow peppers and use them as part of the base for the soup; partly for taste and partly because I had it pictured in my head that the soup would be yellow with specs of green in it. And I also knew I wanted it to be spicy. I like a good amount of heat and I’ll be honest here, I take it a little too far sometimes. Don’t worry though, this isn’t really that spicy. I like to say it has just a little heat to it, which means there will be plenty of room left for flavor. The yellow peppers got deseeded and kind of haphazardly splayed (smashed flat you might say) out on a cookie sheet to go under the broiler along with some whole jalapenos. I used 7 and it was about perfect for me. Don’t bother trying to take the seeds out of the jalapenos, just keep them whole and throw them under the broiler along side the yellow peppers. After the peppers got a nice dark skin on them, I took the pan out of the oven and let them cool down on the table for a little while.

While they were cooling, I figured it was time to get the bacon going. The half pound of bacon just chilling in the freezer was the perfect amount. Sorry for that extremely lame joke I just added. I’ll go sit in the corner and look at my feet for a little while.

It was thawed and ready to be chopped up and added to a frying pan. I knew I wanted to cook it about half way, making sure not to get any of the bacon too crispy. It needed to finish cooking in the soup itself. Also, when the bacon was somewhere around half done, the garlic was added and sauteed in the bacon grease for a minute or two. This is about the time the house started smelling really good. I was thinking about saving the grease from the bacon to make a roux, figuring I was going to need to thicken it up a little, but after adding the Monterey Jack and the half & half it was easy to tell it didn’t need to be thickened at all. It turned out quite like I envisioned which is something that doesn’t always happen in this house. Originally I had planned on adding some black beans to the soup for some extra protein, but it completely slipped my mind as I was furiously throwing all the ingredients into the sauce pan and making sure I wasn’t adding to much chicken bouillon.

To complete this brand new soup of mine, I knew I was going to have to add one of my favorite herbs: cilantro. It was perfect; exactly what I was looking for. Heads up though, the bigger the pieces of cilantro you add to the soup, the more of a wilted flavor you will get from them. I’m not really into that so I would recommend that you don’t just rip off huge chunks and throw them into the soup. It would be better in my opinion to chop them up a bit. If you aren’t a fan of spicy things, you could easily substitute the roasted jalapenos for a different type of pepper such as green chiles. But please buy fresh and roast them before putting them in the soup. So try it out and don’t be afraid to give us your opinion. Or even better, let us know what you did differently to make it even better. If that’s possible…

By: Semiserious Chefs
Serves: 6-8

Ingredients:

3 cups potatoes, diced
2 large yellow peppers
6-10 whole jalapeno peppers
1 quart half & half
8 oz bacon, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
2 tablespoons chicken bouillon + 1 cup water
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

Directions:

In a large sauce pan boil 3 cups of diced potatoes for roughly 10-12 minutes, or until about half done. Potatoes should be chopped as big or as small as you want, but try and keep them uniform in size. The larger they are, the longer they will need to boil. Don’t over boil.
After the potatoes are halfway cooked, drain the potatoes. Return potatoes to the large sauce pan, turning the heat down to medium-low and add the quart of half & half, saving a small amount for use in just a few minutes.
Slice yellow peppers in half and remove the seeds. Lay the yellow peppers as flat as possible on a baking sheet (don’t feel bad about smashing the yellow peppers) along with the whole jalapenos and place under broiler, turning on occasion until a nice darkened skin is achieved all around the peppers. Set aside and let cool.
Chop or slice bacon into pieces and fry over medium heat for 6-8 minutes making sure not to overcook. Add garlic and saute for an additional minute. Drain grease and add the bacon and garlic to the potatoes and half & half.
Peel skin from yellow peppers and jalapeno peppers. Puree the two yellow peppers in a food processor until smooth. If you are having trouble pureeing the peppers, you can use some of the half & half from earlier to help with the blending process. Once smooth, toss them in with the rest of the ingredients.
Dissolve the chicken bouillon in one cup of warm water.
Add dissolved bouillon, 2 cups firmly packed Monterey Jack cheese, and the sliced jalapeno pieces and give the soup a good mix to get the flavors spread out.
Finish it off with 1/2 cup chopped cilantro and enjoy.