Saturday, February 23, 2013

UN-STUFFED PEPPER SOUP

Quick Stuffed Pepper Soup
Last weekend I made a very large Turkey Meatloaf for clients. I bought 5 pounds of ground turkey instead of the usual three so it was way too much.  So large, all the meat wouldn't fit into my meatloaf pan.  I stuffed the loaf pan with all it would hold and used the extra to  make about 20 meatballs.  I just packed them up and put them into the fridge.  I noshed on a couple of them during the week, but still had a container full leftover.  I didn't feel like Spaghetti and Meatballs today and was feeling a little lazy -   not feeling very creative.  I was listening to a cooking show and they were making Un-Stuffed Cabbage Soup.  Since I had no cabbage, but did have frozen diced green peppers from my garden, I turned my meatballs into Un-Stuffed Pepper Soup!

3 14 oz. cans of diced tomatoes
1/2 cup of diced green peppers
1 can of water
1/2 c of uncooked rice
1/4 c ketchup
about 15 or twenty meatballs (home made or purchased will work)
Salt to taste (I used about 2 teaspoons)

Take two of the cans of tomatoes and puree them in your blender, pour into a soup pot. 
Add the third can without pureeing them.  Now add all the other ingredients.  Your soup should be a little watery because that rice has to absorb some of the liquid to cook.

Now turn the heat up to medium high and get it started boiling.  As soon as it starts boiling, turn the heat down to very low and let it simmer until the rice is done, stirring occasionally.

How easy is that!!  Makes enough to feed up to six people!

Tip:  Instead of using diced tomatoes and pureeing them, you can use two or three cans of Campbells Tomato soup.  It'll be delicious that way too!  Just adjust your salt because the soup already has salt.