Roasted Red Pepper and Eggplant Soup created by Travis Durksen

3 large eggplants, sliced into quarters lengthwise
4 large red peppers, sliced into quarters
3 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 Spanish onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 cup ground or minced fresh basil
4 cups chicken broth
1-1 1/2 cups buttermilk
juice from 1/2 lemon
1-2 tsp cumin ( to taste)
1/2 - 1 tsp cayenne pepper (to taste)
salt and pepper to taste
chili pepper flakes
vegetable oil
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup ground or chopped fresh parsley

Soup
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, onion, and garlic into baking pans; you'll probably need 2 or 3 pans; drizzle with veg. oil and chili pepper flakes ( depending on how spicy you like it). Roast in oven for an hour or until eggplant is fully cooked and easy to peel off the skin.
While the vegetables are roasting, put chicken stock into a large soup pot on a medium high heat. Add cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and ground fresh basil (I used a handful of basil from my garden and ground it in a coffee grinder, but you could chop it. If you are not fortunate enough to have fresh basil dry will suffice-probably about 2 tablespoons.) Mix together.
Once vegetables are done, remove peel of the eggplant and then add all the vegetables into the broth mixture. Puree the vegetables in the broth. Add the buttermilk.

Garnish
Grind or finely chop the fresh parsley and mix into the sour cream.
Serve as a garnish on top of the soup.
Makes about 6 servings