VEGETABLE SOUP

Ingredients:
 - Two yellow bell peppers
 - Two summer squashes
 - Two celery sticks
 - One yellow onion
 - One carrot
 - One parsnips
 - Five or six potatoes
 - One small celery root
 - One and a half pounds of chicken (preferably with skin and bones - legs, wings, backs)
 - Spices: salt, a tablespoon of black peppercorns, four or five bay leaves

Preparation:
 - Wash, clean and peel the vegetables. Place them alongside the chicken in a large pot.
 - Add one gallon of water, the black peppercorns and the bay leaves.
 - Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium, cover, and continue cooking for an hour and a half.
 - Remove from heat.
 - Pick the vegetables and place them separately.
 - Pick the chicken pieces. Separate the meat and discard the bones and the skin.
 - Sift the soup through a cheesecloth, and discard the bay leaves and the peppercorns - they already added flavor to the soup.
 - Run the vegetables (minus the carrot) and the chicken meat through the blender (use some of the soup to get it going). Mash the carrots separately: similarly to my mom's original recipe, I like to see very small pieces of the carrot in the soup, and not really a puree of it (which would change the color of the soup).
 - Finally, mix the vegetables and chicken with the remaining soup. Add salt to taste.
 - Serve warm.