Roasted Bell Pepper Soup

• 8 bell peppers, whole
• 1-2 white onions, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes, 28 oz.
• 1 can garbanzo beans, 14 oz. Drained.
• 2 tsp Better than Boullion
• 2 tbsp butter
• fennel seeds
• dill seeds (or fresh dill)
• 1 tsp dried mint, or whatever the fresh equivalent is
• black pepper, freshly ground
• paprika
• salt
• ** Immersion blender (if you don’t have one, substitute a normal blender and see note)**

Steps:

1. Roast 8 whole bell peppers (6 red, 2 green, or mix it up) in the broiler, flipping them every few minutes until they are blackened in places and generally softer (10-15 minutes)
2. Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons of butter or margarine (or oil) on high in a nedium-large pot. When it’s melted, toss in a teaspoon of fennel seeds and turn the heat down to medium.
3. When the fennel seeds are smelling fragrant (30s or so), add 1-2 white onions, diced. Cook for a few minutes, then add 2 cloves minced garlic.
4. When the garlic is starting to brown (30s or so), add the whole peeled tomatoes, including the juice. Smash them with a wooden spoon until they are all punctured. They can still be in one piece each.
5. At this point, the bell peppers should be done roasting. Take them out of the broiler and cut a hole in each one with a knife to let the steam escape. You might want to wear an oven mitt while doing this.
6. Rinse the garbanzo beans and add them to the soup. Mix and cover. Turn the heat down to medium-low if the tomatoes are boiling.
7. Cut the tops off of the peppers (I make a circular incision and just take the part with the stem and the seeds) and discard the tops, stems, seeds and the pith (it’s not vital to get all of the seeds out, just the huge numbers of them is fine). Remove any completely black parts of the pepper skin. Cut the rest of the peppers so none of them is a whole pepper, and toss them into the pot.
8. Mix so that the peppers are mostly submerged in the tomato liquid.
9. Add 1-2 tsp paprika and a large amount of freshly ground black pepper (maybe 1-2 minutes of grinding?).
10. Add 1tsp dried mint (or fresh equivalent) and 1tsp dill seeds (or fresh dill equivalent)
11. Let simmer 5 minutes or so
12. Use the immersion blender to blend to a pulpy consistency with chunks. Try to blend all the peppers without completely pulverizing the small pepper bits.
13. Salt to taste. Serve with dill seeds on top for texture.

NOTE: without an immersion blender. If you don’t have an immersion blender, cut the peppers into smaller pieces (say, 5-8 pieces each) in step 7, and then in step 12 transfer the soup in batches to a regular blender and blend lightly.