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In my home, we're not very fond of capsaicin, and I put too much crushed red pepper (the dry spice, bloomed) into a vegetable soup[1]. What can I do to remedy the soup? (Obviously, I can cook another pot of soup and combine them, but I'd rather not. Any other remedies?)

[1] The soup was made roughly thus: I bloomed the crushed red pepper in a heavy-handed application of Pam and added onion and garlic to saute a little and then to sweat; then I added vegetables and water and seasonings, heated it, and let it simmer.

Cascabel
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msh210
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  • Counterpart (about black pepper): http://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/39337 – msh210 Jun 26 '14 at 04:02
  • related : http://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/30398/67 – Joe Jun 26 '14 at 15:00
  • You say vegetable, but can you be more specific? (if it's broth based, I might adding some potatoes or sweet potatoes or other bland, starchy items; if it's tomato based, I'd probably serve w/ sour cream.) – Joe Jun 26 '14 at 15:04
  • @Joe done. Feel free to remove your comments. – msh210 Jun 26 '14 at 15:46
  • So far the answers seem identical to [How to reduce the heat from peppers in my tomato soup?](http://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/18461) and [How can you make a sauce less spicy/hot?](http://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/1120) and [How can you reduce the heat of a chili pepper?](http://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/6620). Going to dupe this if I don't see any unique answers. – Aaronut Jun 28 '14 at 12:45
  • @Aaronut, ah, it indeed looks like pretty much a dupe of http://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/18461. Thanks for the links! – msh210 Jun 29 '14 at 03:33

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Usually, cream will help cut the heat from peppers, including crushed red peppers. Not sure if your soup would work with dairy. Yogurt or milk would work, sour cream too. Cheese does not seem to help.

DotC
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  • A comment on *"Cheese does not seem to help."* I'm not sure if it is technically a *real* cheese but a brick of ["cream cheese"](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cream_cheese) is great for cutting the heat in spicy chili. – O.M.Y. May 22 '16 at 04:08
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According to this rather informative post (https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/1126), the remedy to your problem seems to be using fats, especially oils. These two sites

http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/01/what-to-do-when-you-add-too-much-spice-make-less-spicy.html

http://rosie2010.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-make-spicy-sauce-less-spicyhot

both seem to recommend yogurt or other dairy, and the last one appears to support the oil/butter approach of the first post, at least if the problem is capsaicin/hot peppers.

Community
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simonra
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  • Good informative links. Dairy is especially effective due to the action of *casein*, which composes a significant amount of the proteins contained in milk. See here: http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/features/capsaicin.shtml – logophobe Jun 26 '14 at 15:18
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If your recipe and objective is dairy tolerant, then dairy will be the best way. If it's not, and dilution is not an option, I recommend adding a sweet or acidic (or both) component to the vegetable soup.

examples to keep it all veggies and no dairy: Sweet - pre-roasted carrots or butternut squash (I find roasting enhances the sweetness) Acidic - pan roasted cherry tomatoes till they burst a bit (mmmmm, in a light oil, with perhaps a bit of white wine and shallots :) ).

Michael E.
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