Roasted Pepper and Garlic Soup

This soup has a delicious flavour and a light velvety texture. The addition of fennel seeds adds to the slight liquorice flavour of the pasilla chillies. Despite the entire head of garlic, as is often the case when it is roasted, adds a sweet rather than pungent garlic flavour. I keep my fridge stocked up with a head of celery and usually some leeks, when you have these two and a few more store cupboard ingredients a good healthy and economical soup is always at hand.

The list is now 94 with Iran

For this soup you will need,
3 sticks of celery
1 fat leek
2 peppers, I had one green and one red but the choice is yours
1 head of garlic 
2 red onions
3 bay leaves
2 teaspoons of pasilla chilli flakes
1 teaspoon of fennel seeds
1 teaspoon of mild sweet paprika
1 tablespoon of tomato puree
50g of unsalted butter
Olive oil
1 goodly amount of parsley, (by that I mean half a cup)
2 litres of vegetable stock made up with Marigold Bouillon Powder
Black pepper

Begin by preparing the peppers, garlic and onion, by quartering the onions, de-seeding and cutting the peppers into large chunks and cutting the garlic head in half across it's equator toss them in olive oil and the fennel seeds and roast them in a pan in a moderate oven 180C for 15 to 20 minutes. Meanwhile chop up the celery and leeks and sweat them off with the bay leaves in a little olive oil in a large saucepan, until translucent around 5 minutes on a low heat. Add the chillies, paprika and tomato puree and continue to cook for a further minute or two. Tip the entire contents of the roasted vegetable pan into to the saucepan and add the stock, black pepper and parsley. simmer gently for around half an hour. Fish out the bay leaves and blend the soup in 2 batches with 50g of unsalted butter. Blending hot soup as I have said before needs to be done with care. Always ensure the lid is on securely, if in doubt keep your hand on top of the lid and as an added measure place a tea towel between your hand and the lid. Not filling the blender jug more than half full is always a good idea and if in doubt simply allow the soup to cool a little before starting. Strain the soup through a fine sieve, this adds more than you think to the final result, a fine velvety texture

Notes:
This soup is thickened only by the vegetables themselves and since there is no starch in them it is not as hefty as perhaps my tomato soup click here for the recipe, as such it can also be served chilled just make sure the butter is really well blended in the first place so that it is fully emulsified.
I can think of no more effective way of producing a delicious food offering to share between 4 to 6 people with such modest ingredients.