Pepper and Pasta Soup

This past week we picked the last of the peppers out of the garden. There were a lot of banana peppers and bell peppers still hanging from the plants and I wanted to use them up. So, my son went out and picked.

My first thought was some stuffed peppers, but a lot of the peppers were just too small for that or were an odd shape. So, my second thought was stuffed green pepper soup. It's one of my favorites. I use some ground beef, canned tomatoes, green peppers, rice, chicken broth and some tomato sauce.

When I looked around my pantry, I realized I didn't have any canned tomatoes (not sure how that happened! I try to always keep those in stock.) I also realized I didn't have rice. The boil-in-bags work great for this. I put the bag right in my broth and boil it and then cut the bag open and dump it.

So, with no rice, I looked to see what I had for pasta. I had a little bit of campanelle pasta left in a box and decided to throw it in. It worked wonderfully! Because it's kind of large, those couple handfuls of pasta were a perfect amount. So, here's the step by step of what I'll call my Pepper and Pasta Soup.

6 chicken bouillon cubes

12 cups of water

46 ounce can tomato juice

1 pound browned ground beef

4 - 6 ounces of campanelle pasta

3 or 4 medium to large bell peppers (any color), diced

1/2 of a large yellow onion, diced 

1/2 - 1 teaspoon of each: dried basil, garlic salt, dried oregano

Two teaspoons of Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute

(adjust seasonings to your taste)

First I dissolved the bouillon in the water on a low simmer. When you use bouillon for soups, the instructions indicate to use one cup of water per cube. I prefer to water it down and use two cups of water per cube to help cut down on the sodium. The tomato juice and added seasonings make up for it.

Add tomato juice and seasonings and let it continue to simmer as you dice the peppers and onion. Add your veggies and continue to simmer about 10 minutes. Then turn up the heat and bring to a boil.  Add pasta and ground beef. Boil for about 8 - 10 minutes or until past has softened.

I was very pleased with the results. In fact, I really liked it better than my traditional stuffed green pepper soup. Hope you enjoy as well!