Unstuffed Pepper Soup

My family has been calling this one an "Unstuffed" Pepper Soup. It can be made with a lot of variation and I'll do my best to point out some other tips or tricks. Unfortunately, my wife doesn't like spicy food, so the concoction we built here is very mild, but I will let you know how you can spice it up. We also chose to keep out the rice in order to cut down on carbs, but you can always add white rice or noodles (just make sure you have enough fluid to thoroughly cook the rice/noodles)

Kitchen Gadgets to Get the Job Done

Slow Cooker (the bigger the better since normally, although not this time, I end up adding so many vegetables that it's never enough room until it finally cooks down)

Spoon to Stir

Knife to Cut Veggies

Pan for the Meat (spatula as well)

Food Processor (chopper)

Ingredients

Chicken or Vegetable Broth (you can also use beef), two or three cans or the larger cartons as shown

Bell Peppers (mixed colors, my wife likes the sweeter red ones)

Zucchini

Large Sweet Onion

Tomato Soup (one can)

Minced Garlic (one spoon, fork, knife, whatever works)

Spinach (one handful)

Fresh Tomatoes or Petite Diced Tomatoes (we had some grape/cherry tomatoes from our garden)

Ortega Taco Seasoning (we try to use low sodium because we find it to be just as flavorful)

Minimum 1lb of ground beef, whatever leanness you want, we used 85%/15% (we used about 1.8 pounds of beef)

Optional Ingredients

Shredded Cheddar Cheese (Taco blend or Colby jack work well too)

Green Onions

Celery (we added some because I had some left over from another recipe)

Poblano Peppers (to add a little spice)

Crushed Red Pepper (to add some more spice)

Jalapeño Peppers (to kick it up a notch)

White Rice or Pasta (if desired)

Shredded Carrots

Yellow Squash (much like the zucchini)

Chopped Broccoli (seems odd, but it also marinades well in the soup)

Turn the slow cooker on high to get started and put the broth, tomato soup, and a serving of minced garlic in the basin. You can use whatever you want in terms of garlic, we sometimes go pretty heavy as it all mixes nicely with the taco seasoning and onions.

Cook Time:

If you leave it on high, the recipe will cook in about 3-4 hours, if you turn it down to low, we recommend 6-7 hours.

If you used a can of petite diced tomatoes just toss them in, otherwise toss what you have in a food processor/chopper and drop it in the slow cooker.

Chop/Dice up all the vegetables into small pieces. We usually slice the zucchini and then quarter the slices. We take all the seeds out of the peppers and cut them into small pieces. Then we chop the onion (this one was fresh from a local farmers market and very fragrant). We also added some celery so that it didn't sit in the fridge and go bad.

This is where we add the Ortega Taco seasoning. As you can see, we add quite a bit, it's probably close to 1/4 cup. We really like the flavor of Ortego but there are other options (some liquid, some powder). If you want something with a little more of a fajita kick, try World Harbors Fajita Sauce & Marinade. You can also toss in a little crushed red pepper if you want a little bite.

We always fully cook our meat before adding it to any soups to ensure it cooks thoroughly. So, we brown the meat in a pan, drain most of the grease, and add Ortega Taco seasoning to lightly coat the meat.

We added a large handful of baby spinach then put the meat right over before stirring everything up.

We recommend you "stir the pot" every half hour or so to make sure the veggies cook evenly and thoroughly. After about 4 hours on high or 6-7 hours on low, your soup should be ready. We highly recommend turning it to "Keep Warm" and let it cool before serving to eat.

We topped our soup with cheddar cheese and green onion. It was delicious.