Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Serves 8-10 people as a starter (with leftovers)
Ingredients
• 6 ounce can roasted sweet red peppers
• 2 tablespoons of butter or bacon drippings
• 2 cups chopped onions (2 medium onions generally does the trick for me)
• 1/8 tsp roasted red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/8 tsp dried marjoram
• lemon zest
• 14 oz can diced tomatoes
• 14 oz can tomato sauce
• dash Worchestershire sauce
• 3 tbls rice wine, red wine, white wine or sherry
• 14 oz coconut milk (or whole fat, whatever)
• 2 cups chicken stock

Directions
1. If you’ve roasted fresh red peppers, set them aside in a tightly covered bowl to cool and then stem, seed, and peel them. If you’re using canned roasted red peppers, rinse them well in a colander and set aside to drain.
2. In a covered non-reactive pot, heat oil (I used a dutch oven for this) on medium-high heat.
3. Add onions, salt, pepper flakes, and garlic. Sauté on medium heat for 15 minutes or until onions are soft and translucent.
4. Remove the pot from heat and add canned tomatoes, red peppers, coconut milk, and water.
5. Mix together so ingredients are fully integrated.
6. Now, in batches, add the soup to a blender to mix all together. An immersion blender works beautifully here as well since you can just throw it right into the pot. If you have a dish towel to spare and are using a standing blender, you may want to put the towel under the cover to prevent hot soup from spilling out the top.
7. Once the soup is fully mixed, add back to the soup pot and reheat content on a low heat. The longer you leave it on the flame the richer the flavors. Alternatively, feel free to make this soup the night before serving and simply reheat in soup pot before serving.