Carrot-bell pepper soup for a rainy evening dinner

When the weather is cloudy and it is a little chilly indoors, I crave for something hot and spicy. It is also true on days when work day has been longer and busy and you realize it is dinner time but not much is ready in the name of dinner. We enjoy our bread & soup days without any of the aforementioned excuses also since we are a soup loving family :-).

I made this delicious carrot-bell pepper soup yesterday and took cue from Veggie Belly's tip for flavoring it with mint, thank you Sala. It was very flavorful and we slurped it with bread topped with grapefruit chutney.

What do you need to make Carrot-bell pepper soup?
4 large carrots - washed, peeled and cut into bite size pieces
1 small yellow baby bell pepper - this adds a sweetish peppery flavor, you can use red colored ones also
1 cup milk
10 mint leaves
1 tsp ground pepper + some for garnish
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp butter
1 cup water

How do you make carrot-bell pepper soup?

1. Heat the butter, fry carrots and bell pepper for a minute, add water and cook until soft, alternatively cook carrots in a pressure cooker.
2. In the mean time, heat the milk on low heat, add mint leaves and let it come to a boil.
3. Switch off the stove, take the mint leaves out and preserve the flavored milk.
4. Once cooked carrots & pepper have cooled, take them to the blender, add the flavored milk and blend it till smooth.
5. Bring the blended mixture to a rolling boil in a soup pot, season with salt & pepper, add water if the consistency is thick. I didn't need any additional water.

Variation:

1. You can add a 1/4 red onion and 1 tomato instead of the bell pepper for a different flavor. grape tomatoes give a nice red hue to the soup. 
2. Add 1/2 tsp of amchoor (dry mango) powder while boiling the soup if you like your soup to have a little punch.