Taco soup with rice and fresh bell pepper [vegetarian]

I LOVE THIS SOUP. I make it once a week, I swear. Its super good re-heated too. I made this batch on the stove top, and the method I'm going to show you has a lot of steps. At the end, I'll post a crock-pot friendly version for those of you who are on the go and just want to set the crock pot and head out.

This recipe (non-crockpot version) is all about layering flavors. This is when you cook different ingredients one or two at a time, add more ingredients to that, cook it, add more, cook it more, etc. layers layers layers--it creates tons of awesome flavor.

I added chicken and rice to my soup. If you are a vegetarian, you can skip the chicken, and then use vegetable broth OR mexican tortilla broth. 


Ingredients: 

1. 2 boxes chicken broth
2. four cups water
3. 3 tsp chicken base
4. half a red bell pepper
4. half a green bell pepper
5. half a white or yellow onion
6. two cloves of garlic
7. two small cans diced green chiles (or fresh green chiles if you can find them, I can't anywhere!)
8. one bag of uncle ben's ready rice
9. juice from half a lime
10. salt/pepper
11. cayenne pepper
12. paprika
13. cumin
14. crushed tomatoes or tomato paste
15. two chicken breasts (if you are using meat)
16. can of corn
17. fresh cilantro

This is the kind of pan I cook my chicken on. Look how clean it is. Preheat the oven to 375 and spray this baby with pam or whatever. 

My chicken breasts were super thick, so I put them in a bag....

And mashed them flat with my fists so they would cook faster. 

Season them with cayenne pepper and paprika, salt and black pepper. Cook them for about 20 mns. You don't want them to be completely done when you take them out, because they will continue to cook in the soup. 

Mince up your garlic. 

Cut the bell pepper into thin strips....

and dice!

Dice up your onion. 

Heat your soup pot on medium with some oil (I used grapeseed oil). Put the ONION in first and let it sweat. 

When it starts to brown like this:

Add the garlic and bell pepper. Let it cook for 5 minutes, give it a stir. 

Then put in half a can of drained corn. Let it cook for a few minutes, stir. 

Grab your tomato paste or crushed tomatoes. 

And add about three heaping spoonfuls. 

Mix it up. 

Let it cook for five more minutes and stir. (layering those flavors!)

Dump in two cans of diced green chiles, or a cup of fresh diced green chiles. I can't find them at ANY of the grocery stores. 

Dump in two boxes of chicken broth.

Next I added about 6 cups of water and 3 tsp of chicken base. You need extra liquid because the rice is going to soak up a lot of that liquid. 

Spices! I added:

1 tsp of cayenne pepper

1 tsp of paprika

2 tsp of chili powder

2 tbsp of cumin (I love cumin. Cumin = mexican food)

Mix it up. 

Take your chicken out of the oven.....

And shred it. You need about two full cups of shredded chicken. 

Dump it in there. 

Juice from half a lemon...

Dump in the rice. This rice is magical. I use it in EVERYTHING. 

Cover and let it cook on low for an hour. Serve it with fresh cilantro! DO NOT SKIP THE CILANTRO. chop it up and mix it in.

 No cheese or sour cream is needed--but it would still be awesome. 

Taste and adjust your seasonings. I added more salt and more lime juice to mine!