all afternoon lentil soup to warm your soul

I love lentils. I also love soup, hence the happy perfect pairing you'll find below. The warm, earthy sweetness of this soup is thanks to roasted cast members sweet peppers and garlic.

Does involve a time commitment, but what better way to spend a lazy Sabbath afternoon? Everything is closed anyway.

Ingredients
1 cup dry split lentils
4 cups of vegetable broth
1 small onion
small head of garlic (6-8 cloves)
3-4 medium sweet peppers (I used two yellow and one orange, because it's what I had)
sesame oil
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Roast your garlic.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.
Cut the top off the head so that each clove is exposed. Drizzle with olive oil, and then wrap into a little aluminium foil packet.
Put in the oven on whatever rack for 40 minutes. The garlic is roasted when the cloves are squishy and soft and sweet smelling.
2. Boil your vegetable broth.
Add lentils, keep boiling for 3 minutes.
Remove from heat and let sit covered for about 1/2 an hour.
3. In the meantime waiting for your lentils to soften up and for the garlic to roast, mince your onion, and get your peppers ready for roasting.
4. Cut your peppers in half, removing the seed packet, stem and white inner membranes.
Whip out a baking sheet, cover in aluminium foil and flatten the peppers on the sheet - skin side up.
Brush the peppers' skin with some oil.
5. At this point, your garlic should be done.
Crank your oven up to broil, and place the baking sheet as close as possible to the broiler without actually touching it.
Let the peppers blacken, takes between 8-10 minutes.
6. While the peppers are roasting, in a large stock pot, add about two tablespoons of sesame oil.
*note* I use sesame oil because I think it's the most delicious thing ever and contributes just a hint of flavour that is really flattering to the lentils. But you can use olive oil instead.
Once oil is hot, toss in the onion. Let the onion saute until they're translucent.
7. Add the lentils and vegetable stock to the soup pot. Squish out as many garlic cloves (whole) as you'd like into the stock. The leftover roasted garlic is delicious in pasta sauces, paired with sun-dried tomatoes, on sandwiches and even just good squished on fresh pita or naan bread. It can store in the fridge for up to a week.
8. When your peppers are roasted, remove them from the oven and quickly toss the slices into a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. The peppers will keep cooking and by trapping the heat in, it'll be easier to pull the charred bits off. Let sit for 5-10 minutes.
9. Once the soup starts to boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cover.
10. Peel the charred skin off your peppers, leaving you with the skinless slippery roasted peppers. Cut into smaller pieces, or don't, and put it in the simmering soup.
11. Let the soup simmer for 20-40 minutes. I left mine for 40 minutes, but I'm sure 20 would be plenty to make sure the flavours all blend and mix.
12. Salt and pepper to taste.
13. Using a hand blender once soup is removed from heat, puree the soup.

Serve hot and enjoy!