African Inspired Crockpot Soup with Peanut Butter, Chiles, Brown Rice, and Lentils

To celebrate the new section in the recipe archives for Crockpot or Pressure Cooker Recipes, here's another crockpot soup I made recently. The idea for a soup with peppers, tomatoes, chiles, and peanut butter came from the Crockpot African Peanut Soup at A Year of Crockpotting, although I did get creative adapting the recipe. I used a combination of chicken and beef stock, but vegetable stock could certainly be substituted to make this a vegan recipe. With brown rice, lentils, and peanut butter, this soup is loaded with protein and flavor, and a crockpot with this simmering away would be great to come home to after a hard day at work.

African Inspired Crockpot Soup with Peanut Butter, Chiles, Brown Rice, and Lentils
(Makes 6-8 servings, recipe adapted by Kalyn from Crockpot African Peanut Soup, originally found by Stephanie at AllRecipes.)

Ingredients:
1 medium yellow onion, chopped in small pieces
1/4 cup sliced green onion
2 red bell peppers, seeds removed and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1 T minced garlic (minced garlic from a jar is fine for this)
2 14 oz. can diced tomatoes with juice (I like Muir Glen organic tomatoes)
4 cups chicken stock (I used homemade chicken stock, but you can use canned broth or stock from a carton)
4 cups beef stock (I used homemade beef stock, but you can use canned broth or stock from a carton)
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 T Ancho chile powder (I used ground Ancho powder from Penzeys)
1 tsp. New Mexico chile powder
1 tsp. Aleppo pepper
(Use any combination of chile powders or spicy red pepper that you have if you don't have Ancho chile powder or Aleppo pepper)
1/2 cup uncooked brown lentils
1/4 cup uncooked brown rice
1 cup peanut butter (for South Beach Diet, be sure to choose natural peanut butter with no added sugar)

Instructions:
I used a 5.5 quart crockpot for this recipe.

Chop onions, green onion, bell peppers, and garlic and place in crockpot. Add canned tomatoes with juice, chicken and beef stock, ground cumin, Ancho chile powder, New Mexico chile powder, Aleppo pepper, lentils, and brown rice. Cook on high for about 4 hours or on low for about 8 hours. (If you're home you can stir it once or twice, but it's not essential.)

After 4 hours (on high) or 8 hours (on low), reduce heat to low and stir in peanut butter. Cook about one more hours. (Or do 30 minutes on high if you're in a hurry for dinner.) Serve hot. I have some of this in the freezer, but haven't thawed it yet, but I'm pretty sure it will freeze just fine.

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South Beach Suggestions:

It's important to use natural peanut butter if you're making this soup for the South Beach Diet, since many brands of peanut butter have a lot of added sugar. The use of brown rice would make this a phase two or three choice, but you could leave out the rice if you wanted to eat it for phase one. All the ingredients here are good choices for a low-glycemic eating plan.

More Delicious Soups with Peanut Butter:
(Recipes from other blogs may not always be South Beach Diet friendly; check ingredients.)
Squash and Peanut Soup from The Perfect Pantry
African Peanut and Yam Soup from The Well-Seasoned Cook
African Sweet Potato and Bean Soup from Karina's Kitchen
Spicy Carrot Peanut Soup from Eggs on Sunday
West African Peanut Soup from The Gracious Bowl
Sausage and Root Vegetable Soup with Peanut Butter from Frugal Cuisine
West Indian Peanut Soup from Cooking from A to Z

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