Bell peppers of all colors must be really in season somewhere in Mexico, because the grocery stores are filled to the brim with them and they're all on sale. Red, yellow, orange, and good old green--they're all delicious. Green bell peppers are good when I don't want something sweet, but I like the taste of the warm-colored bell peppers. I think they're also better for you too, richer in beta carotene and vitamin C. I went a little nuts and bought six of them a week ago, thinking I'd be healthy and eat one each day as a snack or veggie side to a meal. HAH. HA. HA. HAHAHAH. I was so optimistic though!
Anyway, a week after buying the peppers and I knew I needed to do something with them. I was tired of stir-fries, so I thought about soup. If I made a pureed vegetable soup, I'd need something substantial added to it. Plain pureed veggie soups don't normally satisfy me on their own. I usually need a grilled cheese sandwich or at least a hefty slice of bread to dip in the soup. Sadly, I had no bread in the house and, since I wanted to eat at a reasonable time, I wasn't going to make any. I always have rice on hand though, because I am a stereotype, so that's what I settled on as the carbohydrate portion of my meal. I put it in the rice cooker to do it's thing while I prepped everything else. I also had some beef in the freezer that was *this close* to freezer burn, so I defrosted it in the microwave and cubed it up to go in the soup. I think ground beef would make this soup even better, giving it even more of a "stuffed bell pepper" feel, so I recommend you use ground beef if you can for this soup.
Ah, the soup. Bright, spicy, tangy, a little sweet. What a zippy soup!
I browned the cubed beef in my Dutch oven and set the beef aside on a plate.
I added a little olive oil to the pot, along with five diced yellow bell peppers and one diced red onion. I was a little concerned about what color my soup would turn out to be, but I was resolved to eat it, no matter what. I was getting pretty hungry around this time.
When the veggies were softened up, I stirred in a can of chickpeas, garlic, crushed red pepper, red wine vinegar, dried oregano, dried basil, salt, black pepper, and a little sugar. Then I added one large can of plum tomatoes, 2 cups of chicken broth, and 2 cups of tomato sauce. I I let the soup cook for 10 minutes or so and then used my trusty immersion blender to smooth out the soup. After pureeing, I added my cubed beef back into the soup. If you like chunky soups or you used ground beef and didn't take the beef out of the pot when you cooked the vegetables, you might not want to use your blender too much. Pureed meat seems . . . geriatric.
It turned into a pleasantly red-orange soup. I ladled some into a bowl, adding a scoop of rice and a palmful of mozzarella. I don't want to say it's my favorite soup now, but it's pretty high on the list. It made really great leftovers that I very carefully transported to work for the following week. I even had enough to freeze for a couple of meals.
It's cold enough now to appreciate a nice warm soup. Do yourself a favor and add this to your list!
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| Rice and mozzarella! So so good in this soup. |
Stuffed bell pepper soup
(makes enough for 6-8)
On the stove, in a large pot or Dutch oven, brown 1 1/2 pounds beef (either cubed chuck or regular ground beef) over medium-high heat. Transfer beef to a plate, draining fat from Dutch oven. Add 1 tbsp olive oil to the pot and then add 4-6 diced bell peppers and 1 diced onion. Cook vegetables until softened, about 5-7 minutes. Stir in 1 15oz can (drained and rinsed) chickpeas, 4 cloves minced garlic, 1-2 tsp crushed red pepper (less if you don't want it to be spicy), 1 tsp dried oregano, 1 tsp dried basil, 1/2 tsp black pepper, and 2 tsp salt. Let the vegetables cook for another minute or two, then add 1 28oz can tomatoes (diced, whole, or crushed), 2 cups chicken broth, and 2 cups tomato sauce. Stir and let it come to a boil. After it has boiled for a minute or so, turn the heat down to medium-low and use an immersion blender (or a regular blender, in batches) to puree the soup to your desired consistency. Add the beef back into the soup and let the soup cook for another 5-10 minutes.
Serve the soup with cooked rice (I used a combination of brown and white) and shredded mozzarella cheese.
*You could make this vegetarian/vegan easily. Just double or triple the amount of chickpeas and leave out the beef. I think this would be good made with half carrots/half bell peppers too. Chicken or bacon would probably be really tasty in place of beef, so feel free to mix it up that way.
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