Unstuffed Green Pepper Soup

My mom passed this recipe along to me from an awesome soups cookbook. (I'll let you know the title as soon as I can remember it.) It sounds (and tastes) a lot like a hearty chili and my dad told me it was "awesome." (Which is a really high compliment from him!) Kevin and I were both big fans!

The "hardest" part of this soup is probably preparing all 3 green peppers or opening all the cans. :)

Also, I might recommend leaving the rice out of the pot of soup and adding to to individual bowls at the time of serving. Otherwise most of the liquids are absorbed into the rice (meaning you might have to add some extra liquids to eat this as leftovers...which there are a LOT of when you're serving 2. I would say this could serve 5-10 people depending on serving sizes.)

Ingredients

3 green peppers, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

salt

pepper

1-1/2 pound ground beef (I used only 1 lb--half lean ground beef, half lean ground turkey), browned

1 (4oz) can mushrooms, drained

2 (14oz) cans tomato soup

2 (14.5 oz) cans beef broth (I used 3 beef bouillon cubes dissolved in 3 cups water)

1 (28 oz.) can crushed tomatoes

crushed red pepper flakes (Optional)

chili powder (optional, I used 1-2 Tbsp)

1-1/2 cup uncooked rice (cooked separately to yield 3 cups)

In a large dutch oven heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Cook onions and garlic until beginning to soften (5 minutes). Add green peppers, stir occasionally and keep covered until softened.

In the meantime using a separate skillet brown ground meat.

Add salt and pepper to the onions and peppers in the dutch oven as desired. Stir in mushrooms. Stir in ground meat. Add in crushed tomatoes, tomato soup, beef broth. Stir to incorporate. Heat to a low bubble, stirring frequently. Add in crushed red pepper and chili powder as desired (or leave out altogether.) Add the rice when ready to serve (or leave out of the large pot and add desired amount to each individual serving.)