Puree of Fire Roasted Vegetable Soup

When it is cold out, I like to make soups. I was walking around the farmer's market looking for vegetables when I came across She Wolf Bakery which makes an incredible rustic sprouted rye bread. It's dense and hearty, wonderful to use as a sturdy base for a tartine which is the French word for an open faced sandwich. My inspiration for my lunch was sparked from this incredible bread. I thought a fire roasted vegetable soup with beet hummus tartine will hit the spot.

Ingredients for the soup:

• 3 large carrots
• 2 red peppers
• 6 scallions
• 1 small delicata squash or any squash of choice
• 1/4 cup dried lentils
• bay leaf
• garlic

I started to roast some vegetables. I like to roast my vegetables straight over a flame until the skins are blistered and charred. Once I removed the vegetables from the flame, I placed them into a bowl and sealed it with plastic wrap to create some steam so the skins will peel off easily. Don't worry if some of the pepper skin is stuck and you can't remove it. The soup will be pureed and that charred skin will add flavor. The scallions were a bit tricky to char over the flames so I tossed the scallions with some olive oil and placed them on a grill pan. I placed all the ingredients into a small pot and filled the pot with enough water to cover 1 inch over the vegetables. I brought everything to a boil and then I let the soup simmer until all the vegetables and lentils are soft and tender. I transferred the soup (minus the bayleaf) into a blender and blended it until smooth. Once the soup is finished, you can adjust the consistency of the soup by adding more water if the soup is too thick and if it's too thin, you can reduce it to you desired consistency. Then I finish seasoning the soup with salt, pepper and some smoked paprika to enhance the smokiness flavor from the charred vegetables.

I like textures in my dishes. Since my soup was going to be a puree, I wanted a crispy element so I made some roasted kale to accompany the soup. I tossed some olive oil with bite sized kale and simply seasoned it with salt, pepper and ground coriander. I placed the kale on a sheet pan and roasted them in a 400 degree oven, stirring them occasionally so they cook evenly.

For the beet hummus, I steamed some beets in the pressure cooker. Once cooled, I remove the skins and chopped them into smaller pieces and placed it into a food processor. I pureed the beets with tahini, salt, pepper and brine from a pickle jar. I slathered a layer onto the thinly sliced toasted bread and I added some avocado slices. It was the perfect light lunch.