I am going to make a roasted yellow pepper soup for my dinner party this Saturday. Can I roast the peppers ahead of time? If so, how far ahead? Any ideas/suggestions would be appreciated? Thanks.

I don't see why you couldn't roast and peel them a couple of days ahead of time, and then keep them in the refrigerator. I'm assuming you are going to puree them for the soup. If you have some other presentation in mind, it might be better to do it the day you make the soup.

Yes, they will be pureed.

Are you going to spear them and roast them over a gas flame? That's what works for me. After they are thoroughly blistered, I put them in a paper bag for 20 minutes, and the skin comes off easily.

I haven't roasted them days in advance for a dish, but I imagine that you could roast them, strip them, cut them up and keep them in a baggie (remember to squeeze out the air) in the fridge for a few days. Putting a splash of olive oil and some salt in the baggie with the peppers might help.

You may also be able to do the whole soup the day before and just reheat, and add any last minute seasonings when your guests arrive. I've found that vegetable soups made with a meat or chicken stock are usually better the next day. However, if the soup has other ingredients that don't age well (rice, fresh tomatos and zucchini come to mind), then play it safe and make the soup as fresh as possible.

If the soup is a cold soup, then usually you can make it a day or so in advance. In fact the chilling for 24 hours will only help.

Trader Joe's sells frozen roasted peppers, so ... if Joe can do it, you can do it!

No, it's definitely not a cold soup. I had been thinking to make the soup the evening before. But I wanted to have the roasted peppers ready to go. So ideally, I would roast them tomorrow or Thursday evening.

Well, I roasted and put them away Thursday night. The next night, I peeled and cut them into strips. I packed them in their own juice. Saturday, I made the soup. It turned out pretty good. At least, everybody was very complimentary.

Congratulations! I bet it was a lot better than "pretty good." I don't suppose you'd care to share the recipe with us? (I love yellow peppers ;-)

I will consult the book at home but of the top of my head, there was roasted yellow peppers, potatoes, vegetabe stock, salt, black pepper, oregano leaves, and onions.