Recipe(tried): Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Mushroom Pasta Sauce

I started with both Gladys' and Dean Ornish's recipes last night for Red Pepper Sauce and tweaked them into one, using homemade roasted red bells instead. Here's what I came up with.

Creamy Roasted Red Pepper and Mushroom Pasta Sauce

2 large red bell peppers, halved, seeds and ribs removed
1 cup diced onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon minced freah thyme
2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup nonfat sour cream
salt and cayenne to taste
2 portabello mushroom caps, sliced
8 oz white mushrooms, sliced

Broil peppers until skins blacken, immediately place in a zip lock bag and seal to steam peppers.

While peppers are steaming, spray a non stick skillet lightly with non stick canola spray and heat over medium heat. Saute mushroom slices, stirring occasionally until mushrooms are tender. Reserve.

When peppers are cool enough to handle, slip skins off peppers. It's not necessary to get all the blackened parts off. Dice peppers and combine with onion, garlic, thyme and 1/2 cup of the vegetable broth. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and simmer 5 minutes.

Add remaining 1 1/2 cups broth, cover and simmer about 5 minutes, remove cover and simmer 5 minutes more. Drain vegetables, reserving liquid. Puree vegetable mixture in a food processor or blender until smooth. Stir liquid back into vegetable puree.

Whisk in the sour cream then stir in sauted mushroom slices. Reheat gently. Serve over cooked pasta of your choice.

For lunch today I stirred the leftover sauce into leftover minestrone soup for a yummy change of taste.