Recipe of the Week

After several attempts to make this, and having Mark say peanut butter soup does not sound good, I finally just made it and didn't tell him that was what I was making. Turns out peanut butter soup is really, really good! It was easy to make gluten free as well...I used rice four instead of regular flour.

FYI - this is a very thick soup and is filling enough to be a stand alone meal.

African Peanut Soup

1 med onion, chopped
1 lg carrot, pared and diced
1 rib celery, chopped
1 green or red bell pepper, seeded and sliced
2 cloves garlic
3 tbsp flour
5 cups chicken stock
2/3 cup creamy or chunk style peanut butter (more if you like peanut butter) Jen's note - We both really like peanut butter so I used a whole cup.
2 lg tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced (or a 28 oz can tomatoes, cut up)
2 or more cups cooked chicken meat, diced (I use 3-4 chicken breasts cooked in a pressure cooker) Jen's note - I steamed 4 chicken breasts and shredded it using two forks.
1 cup milk
1 cup rice
white pepper
cayenne pepper
hopped roasted peanuts - Jen's note-used regular planters peanuts in a can.

Heat oil in a 3 quart saucepan. Saute onion, carrot, celery, garlic and pepper for 10 minutes. Add chicken stock, tomatoes and chicken breasts. Simmer until chicken is done. (Jen's note - If you steam it like did the chicken will already be done, so I simmered for a few minutes so the chicken could absorb some of the flavors.)

Remove chicken, cut it up or shred it and add back to the pot. (Jen's note - I shredded right after steaming and skipped this step.)

Return to boil and stir in 1 cup rice, reduce heat to low then cover pot and simmer until rice is done. (Jen's note - I gave it 20 to 30 minutes and then checked the rice.)

Mix flour in milk and slowly stir into the soup; bring to a boil while stirring constantly.

Add peanut butter, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Season to taste with white and cayenne pepper and simmer 30 additional minutes before serving.

Garnish with a handful of chopped roasted peanuts on each portion.

The best part about this meal is that it goes a long way. We froze portions of it and have gotten 3 dinners and 2 lunches out of it!