I’ve never made stuffed peppers but I remember picking up Becky from the baby sitter some 20+ years ago and she was cooking these and they smelled wonderful. Still, I never made them (by the way if you have a good recipe feel free to share). Anyway all these years later, via Pinterest, I saw some different recipes for a Stuffed Pepper Soup, intrigued, I decided to give that a go.
Now I love soup but I find that it doesn’t necessarily fill me for the Weight Watchers points I’m willing to give to it (e.g., a four or eight point serving may not satisfy me the way I want). So I really like when a soup fits into my Simply Filling program because whether I choose to indulge or not, it feels like I am by the simple act of not measuring.
So when I first saw this recipe I liked the flavor profile (i.e., using the basil and oregano) but I knew I wanted brown rice instead of jasmine rice and I don’t like using fresh tomatoes in the winter because I find them bland.
Then I found this recipe, but I knew I didn’t want chili powder as the dominant spice (as I didn’t want this to be chili-like) nor did I want the base to be chicken soup but beef soup. However, I did like the use of the canned tomatoes.
So basically I combined the recipe in the one below. I liked it but I find after the brown rice simmers for a bit, it eats up much of the broth (the soup is pretty thick), so I may add a little more next time. Also, I want a more dominant pepper flavor, so I’ll probably add more green pepper next time too. Lastly, I used yellow pepper because that’s what I had on hand but don’t be afraid to substitute whichever type of pepper you like.
Ingredients
- 1lb lean ground beef (93% or better)
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 green pepper, chopped
- 1 red or yellow pepper, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 quart beef broth, fat free.
- 2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes
- 1/2c tomato sauce
- 2C cooked brown rice
- 1t oregano
- 1/2t basil
- salt and pepper to taste
 Directions
Brown the beef in a large stock pot or dutch oven over medium high heat, breaking to crumble. Add the onion, peppers and garlic and cook until the veggies are slightly soft, maybe five minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and let simmer for about 20 minutes until the flavors blend a bit.
Other Notes
This recipe is totally Simply Filling. Also, I don’t see why it wouldn’t work with ground turkey breast or ground chicken breast instead, but in that case I might use chicken broth instead. It freezes well.
Lastly, an easy way to cook the brown rice that I use, is in a microwave safe dish (I use my 2 quart one from Pampered Chef), mix 3C water and 1C brown rice. Nuke on full power for 10 minutes (uncovered). Then nuke on 50% power for 20 minutes, let stand for about 5 minutes. That will give you about three cups cooked brown rice. You could put all of it in the soup but then I would definitely add more broth.