The red pepper flakes and coconut milk give this cool summer soup a slow, sweet heat.

Jessica Webster | AnnArbor.com

For reasons I haven’t yet been able to figure out, I’ve started running. Not to get somewhere. Just to, you know, run.

If you know me, you’re probably laughing right now. I am not a runner. But a great new pair of running shoes (they’re orange!) and a goal of getting from the couch to a 5 km race in November have me up with the mosquitoes several mornings a week these days.

I’m not telling you this to brag. Believe me when I tell you that I am nowhere near the bragging stage yet. Rather, this all leads up to the explanation of where this soup recipe comes from.

One of our favorite places to run is County Farm Park. It’s comfortable and quiet, and it’s often just the runners and the wildlife (bunnies and deer, no bears) when we’re there.

County Farm is also the home of Project Grow's largest community garden. As I ran past over the weekend, I saw some beautifully ripe red bell peppers and thought: “I wonder how those would taste as a chilled soup!”

I mentioned my new obsession with chilled soups in last week's column. This obsession has only been reinforced by my discovery of a new favorite gazpacho. You have to try the gazpacho at Mani Osteria on Liberty. They certainly don’t oversell it on the menu, simply listing San Marzano tomatoes and lump crab where they could have described the terrific mouth-feel, the perfectly piquant flavors, and the addictive qualities of the soup. This is why I am telling you — get there while it’s still on the menu.

I thought about trying to replicate the Mani gazpacho at home, but for now I am content to let them make it for me for lunch a couple of times a week. Instead, I set to work trying to find a good chilled red pepper soup.

Many of the recipes I found for chilled red pepper soup included tomatoes. But wouldn’t that be awfully close to gazpacho? I finally found a recipe for a roasted red pepper soup with a chicken broth and coconut milk base. To keep it vegetarian, I chose to use vegetable broth. And to boost the flavors a bit, I added in some garlic, onions and red pepper flakes.

The soup is lovely. The roasted pepper and coconut milk combine to give you an almost sweet flavor at the front of your mouth, but the red pepper flakes kick after a moment in for a slow, subtle burn.

A note on roasting bell peppers: If you have a gas range, the easiest way to roast a pepper is to set it directly on a low flame, keeping a careful eye on it and turning it as each side gets charred.

If you don’t have a gas range, you can halve and seed the peppers, toss them with vegetable oil, set them cut side down on a cookie sheet and roast them on the upper rack in a 500 degree oven for 15-18 minutes, or until they are nicely charred.

After the peppers are roasted, stick them in a paper bag or in a bowl sealed with plastic wrap until they reach room temperature. Peel or rub the skins off with a towel. Do not rinse the peppers to remove the skins. Rinsing the peppers in water will result in a lot of flavor loss.

Chilled roasted red pepper soup

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon olive oil


• 1 cup chopped onion


• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped


• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes


• 1 teaspoon salt


• 1 14-ounce can coconut milk


• 1 cup vegetable stock


• 2 red bell peppers, roasted, seeded and peeled

Instructions

Warm the oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, red pepper flakes, and salt and saute for about 15 minutes, until the onions are very soft and translucent. Remove the pot from the heat and add the coconut milk, vegetable stock, and the roasted red peppers.

In batches in a blender or food processor, puree the soup until smooth. Taste and add more salt if needed. Transfer the soup to a covered container and chill it for at least two hours before serving.

Serves two.

Jessica Webster leads the Food section for AnnArbor.com. You can reach her at JessicaWebster@AnnArbor.com or listen to her on Sunday afternoons on WEMU.