Unstuffed Pepper Soup

A couple weeks ago, my friend Maria posted a recipe for Turkey Meatballs, made with rice and a pepper "infused" spaghetti sauce to go over the top.  It got me thinking.....how can I do something like this in the slow cooker?

Well, I took the SERIOUSLY easy way out of course!  Last week, Bell Peppers were on sale, so I picked up a few!  This morning, I was just about ready to get the kids in the car and it hit me......"Crap!  I have nothing ready for dinner tonight!"  (I went to bed early and didn't get anything prepped last night!)  I went to my cupboard, pulled out a can or tomato sauce, a can of diced tomatoes, grabbed an onion from my fridge and 2 bell peppers.  I chopped as quickly as I could, dumped the cans in, added some water and spices and then decided to crumble some beef in.  In 10 minutes, I had it all ready to cook all day!  Phew!  Crisis averted!

When I got home from work today, my house smelled amazing!!!!  I quickly added my rice and then took the kids out to play.  When we were done playing, dinner was ready to go!

This soup tasted great!  It was very much like eating a stuffed pepper, just in soup form, LOL!  The flavor was not overpowering.  It was very light and clean.  My husband and I both agreed that fresh garlic would have been great in this, but I didn't have any (or the time to chop it up the morning anyway!)

If you don't have time to wait for the rice to cook when you get home, make your rice the night before you plan to serve this for dinner.  When you serve your soup, scoop a serving of rice in each bowl and pour the soup over the top!  Problem solved!

I can't wait for you to try this!

Unstuffed Pepper Soup

Ingredients: (This makes 6-8 servings) 

1 Yellow Bell Pepper, chopped

1 Red Bell Pepper, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1 15oz. can Tomato Sauce

1 14.5oz. can Petite Diced Tomatoes

3/4 lb. ground beef (uncooked)

4 cups water

2 Tbsp. Garlic Powder (although a 2-3 cloves of minced fresh garlic would be better)

1 tsp. basil

1 tsp. oregano

1-2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1/2 cup arborio rice, uncooked

Directions: (I used my 3 Quart Slow Cooker for this)

Place your onions, yellow and red peppers in the bottom of your crock.

(pretty isn't it?!)

Add the garlic powder, basil, oregano, salt and pepper.

Add the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and water.

Crumble the raw beef into the soup.

Cook on LOW for 7-9 hours or on HIGH for 3.5-4.5 hours

45minutes before serving, add the arborio rice and give it a stir.

Serve and ENJOY!