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bonse's avatar
bonse
Explorer
Feb 21, 2016

Soups for a cold day

I love homemade soup at this time of year. One of my favourites is the stuffed pepper soup. I used the hot italian sausage instead of ground beef.

Do you have a favourite soup you like to make?

1lb LEAN ground beef ( I used hot italian sausage)
1 lg onion, diced
1 cup uncooked or 2 cups cooked rice (I love to use wild rice)
1 can Hunts flavored diced tomatoes (Red pepper and fennel, roasted garlic, sweet onion etc) (14.5oz can)
1 can tomato sauce (14.5oz can)
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp basil
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
1 box chicken stock (32oz)
2 cups water
2 tbsp powdered beef stock
3 bell peppers (I use 1 big green pepper then 4-5 red and 4-5 yellow BABY bell peppers)
Cheese for topping (optional)
Fresh cracked black pepper for garnish (optional)

In a large soup pot coated with cooking spray, over medium-high heat, brown the grown beef with the onions and rice. I know that sounds odd, but browning the rice gives it a nice nutty flavor – do not allow it to burn!!
Meanwhile dice your peppers into small ½" pieces, set side
Add in the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, oregano, basil, salt, pepper, chicken stock, water, and powdered beef stock, then allow it to come to a boil.
Reduce heat, cover and allow it to cook 20 minutes then add the peppers and allow it to cook another 20-30 minutes (some types of rice may need longer cooking times)
  • While on the road full time I 'had' the time to try all types of soup recipes in a crock pot!

    Believe it or not this simple one turned out to be the best. And we all know that 'simple' is what makes it or not when you have to prepare it in an RV. :C

    2 Turkey wings
    4 carrots
    4 stalks of celery
    2 boxes of Swanson 99% fat free (do NOT use the 100% fat free that one or salt free one those taste terrible.)

    Throw in crock pot over night. When done throw out the turkey wings and celery. The carrots keep.

    It tastes great with a real depth of flavor. AND surprisingly it does NOT taste anything like turkey soup left over from thanksgiving! :B

    And for me more importantly I know there is no MSG in it. I freeze it in containers for the RV and while on the road pull one out and add noodles or some vegetables, micro and you have nice home cooked meal.

    This really helped me stay out of all those fast food places while traveling. :C
  • Me and mine wuvvv dried bean soups.
    ANY kind of bean soups.

    I can't say I've any straight up recipe beyond always starting with a home made stock when possible.

    The only follow more or less to the recipe I use is for Cuban black bean soup and here is my base:

    http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1013062-cuban-black-beans


    I add more stock after cooking the beans to make it more soupy but tend to start it off just as written in case we want beans and rice. I call it a 2 fer 1 method;).