Crockpot Stuffed Pepper Soup

I know what you're thinking: soup in May?! 

Yep! I was that crazy person making soup in the crock pot yesterday when it was incidentally 87 degrees out. I wish I were exaggerating but it was literally nearly that hot in our house too, but luckily we have the ACs up and running today! 

I went to Trader Joe's the other day and they had enormous bell peppers for only 89 cents each so I stocked up on four huge ones. I was planning on making regular stuffed peppers but then I was in the bean aisle to get corn for something else I was making, and I decided to do a soup. I realize that it's a little non-traditional to put beans in stuffed peppers or stuffed peppers soup but when is my cooking ever traditional haha! I personally loved having the beans in the soup as they add more texture and add to the hardiness of the soup. 

In typical fashion, I basically just grabbed whatever I could find in the pantry and lucked out that we had some chicken stock and canned tomatoes! Looking back now I had about zero pre-planning other than grabbing the beans at Trader Joe's, but that pretty much explains me in a nut shell. 

Okay so here's what you'll need: 

2.5lbs ground turkey

32oz chicken stock

1 cup cooked rice

28oz can of diced tomatoes (not drained)

12oz frozen/fresh green beans

1 large red pepper, diced

1 large green pepper, diced

1 15oz can of black beans (drained)

1 15oz can of white kidney beans (drained)

4 beef bouillon cubes (optional)

salt, pepper, oregano, and basil to taste

You don't need to do 2.5 pounds of turkey but we get ours at Sam's Club, and as that's the amount that comes in a pack I just used it all. I also found a bag of frozen green beans when I got out the turkey so they also made their way into this soup. Like I said I was just grabbing things! 

Another thing you'll note is the lack of onion or garlic in this recipe. Amanda can't have either of those so I left them out. Feel free to add them in if you want! The beef bouillon cubes are optional and again weren't planned. About 3/4 of the way through, I decided the soup needed something else so I grabbed them to beef up the flavor. I'm sorry. I tried to resist the urge to make a pun, I really did. But please it's me after all. 

I recruited my mom to help me with the soup! I told her that it counted as her occupational therapy for the day hehe

And of course her seat gets stolen first thing! Her and Cosmo have this continual battle back and forth because her favorite chair is also his favorite chair. As you can see I'm constantly surrounded by animals that are convinced they're "helping"...

To make the soup: 

1. First brown the ground turkey in a pan. You don't have to cook it all the way through but just get some color on it. 

2. Add it to the crockpot along with everything EXCEPT the rice. You don't want to add it in until near the very end. 

3. Cook on high for about 6 hours or low for 8 hours. 

4. With about 30 minutes left, add in your cooked rice. 

And that's it! 

I wish I could give you an exact measurement of what spices I used but I didn't measure them at all. I am also the type of person that seasons as they go so each time I'd check on the soup I might add in a dash of something here or there. That's why I always say add the spices to your taste because I think that is something that varies greatly between people. 

This recipe could also be great if you did a Mexican flavor profile on it! Growing up my mom always made her stuffed peppers with an Italian flavor so I always gravitate towards that with stuffed peppers. However, I think it'd be delicious too if you subbed out the oregano and basil for some spicier spices like chile powder or cumin. I mean the beans are already in there so it's basically halfway there anyway haha! 

It might not be the prettiest meal but it was delicious! I was really happy with how it turned out and I topped mine off with a piece of leftover corn bread that I had made Thursday night. 

And here are the macros! The serving size is 1 cup and this recipe made 18 servings. 

If you try this recipe out, let me know what you think! I'd love to hear your thoughts :)