Roasted Pepper Soup with Pork Meatballs

Our CSA basket currently overflows with peppers.  There is a bitter quality to peppers that is really not my favorite so I have been squirreling them away in the refrigerator behind things like cottage cheese and egg cartons trying to forget they are there.  However when we received yet more peppers in our basket this week, I knew I needed something that used them all up lest I feel guilty for not taking advantage of this bounty.  The following soup is what I came up with as a way to use all the peppers at once.  My husband fears that I'm going to soup myself out now and not want to make any during the cold months since I've recently been on a soup kick, but I doubt that.  Soup is so nurturing that I'll naturally want some come cold weather, plus, it gets my kids to eat their veggies especially when I puree it (and bribe them with dessert).  My husband really liked this soup.  The meatballs were light and the soup itself tasted like gravy.  Hearty and yummy.  Enjoy!

Roasted Pepper Soup with Pork Meatballs by Joie de vivre

Ingredients:

3 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil

5-6 sweet peppers of all colors (keep green peppers to no more than 2) roasted, and cut into thin strips  (see *note below if you don't know how to roast peppers)

1 Tbs. fresh oregano

4 3/4 cups Chicken Broth (divided)

salt

8 oz. ground pork

4 egg whites (or 2 whole eggs)

bread crumbs

1.  Over medium-low heat, add olive oil to heavy bottomed soup pot.  Add the sliced, roasted peppers, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes.

2.  Add half the chicken broth to the soup pot with the peppers and bring to a simmer.  Add salt to taste and simmer for about 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, puree with an immersion blender or in small batches in the blender.  Return to the pot.

3.  Meanwhile, in a small bowl, add the pork, the egg whites and enough bread crumbs so mixture will stick together.  Roll small meatballs out of entire mixture.  Add meatballs to another pot with the other half of the chicken broth and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to a gentle boil and cook meatballs for 10 minutes.

4.  Add meatballs and broth to the pureed pepper soup and simmer another 10 minutes.  

*To roast peppers:  Put the peppers directly over the flame on stove burner.  Turn with tongs occasionally, but the idea is to char the skin all over.  After the skin is charred, wrap the peppers up in a kitchen towel to "sweat" a few minutes.  Rub the peppers with the towel to remove most of the blackened skin.  Doing this really sweetens the peppers up and brings out their flavors while mellowing that bitter taste that green peppers have.