After a long, beautiful summer, it's finally my second favorite time of year: soup season! We're big soup lovers in our house and I thoroughly enjoy cooking one day and making it last two, haha! This stuffed pepper soup is my personal favorite for several reasons including how easy it is to make, we almost always have all ingredients on hand, it’s easy to substitute the majority of the ingredients, and it cooks in an instant (pot)!
Traditionally, this type of soup utilizes ground beef, however, in our house we use whatever meat we have on hand; it’s either ground beef, ground turkey, or elk, with the latter of the two being an easy way to sneak in a leaner protein without sacrificing the taste! All the tasty goodness from this soup comes from the peppers therefore the protein truly doesn’t matter, in my opinion. Additionally, we often substitute the jasmine rice for riced cauliflower, again as an easy way to add some healthy ingredients without sacrificing the taste or texture. One of my friends, who is vegetarian, has tried replacing the meat and rice with tofu and beans, and swaps the beef broth for vegetable, and still had great results! Again, this soup is literally the most versatile thing you can make!
Ingredients:
· 1 lb. ground beef
· 2 teaspoon garlic powder
· 2 teaspoon onion powder
· 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
· Pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
· Salt and pepper to taste
· 3 large colored peppers or ¾ bag of mini peppers, diced to preference
· 1 15 oz can tomato sauce
· 5 cups reduced sodium beef broth
· ½ to 1 cup jasmine rice or small bag of frozen riced cauliflower
The amount of rice will depend on how thick you want the soup; we prefer a thicker soup and use the whole cup of rice. If you want a runnier soup, use ½ cup rice. Again, with the frozen cauliflower, if you want a thicker soup use the whole bag or thinner soup use half the bag etc.
· Additional optional toppings: sour cream, shredded cheese, scallions
Directions:
1. Set instant pot to sauté, add ground beef and all spices (garlic, onion, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes) and cook until meat is no longer pink.
2. Turn off instant pot and slowly add beef broth while stirring the cooked meat and spices, making sure to scrap any browned meat off the bottom.
3. Add in the diced peppers, tomato sauce, and rice and stir to mix. I like to add some additional salt and pepper to taste at this step also.
4. Place lid on instant pot and set the valve to sealing. Press manual and adjust the time to cook for 10 minutes. Note: it will take several minutes for the pressure cooker to build up pressure before it will actually start cooking.
5. After the 10 minutes is up, allow the pressure cooker to release pressure naturally for 5 minutes before opening the valve to do a quick pressure release.
6. Stir soup to ensure a nice mixture of meat, peppers and rice, and serve immediately with or without the aforementioned additional toppings!
Like with most soups, this soup stores well and will get thicker as it cools. If you find it’s too thick, simply add more beef broth or water upon heating to thin it out. Any time I thin something, I add a little extra of the spices used to ensure it still has some good flavor! I would suggest eating all the soup within 3-5 days of cooking it, however, if you make a double batch feel free to freeze extras for an easy future dinner!
Let us know if you try to make it, we would love the feedback!! I tried to remember to take more pictures, but we were eating it too fast to remember, so my apologies! Guess that gives us a good excuse to make more soon! :)
Dr. Bloom
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