I first posted this recipe 3 years ago. At that time, I had never had a soup with peanuts as the predominate flavor.  When my husband told me about it, he said it was really good, but he says a lot of things are really good and I don’t always agree. Yet, I like peanuts and it’s flavor in dishes quite a bit.

Our motto for trying new things is “we know the number to the pizza place”, meaning if what we make isn’t any good, we can always eat something else.  We looked at a few recipes and combined several of them to come up with this one.  It has become a regular meal for us.

What about three years later?  It’s still going strong.  We eat 1-2/month in the winter season.  It works as a meatless meal for us.  Always a plus when you have Carnivorous Rex times two in the house.

You can make this as spicy as you like.  We do like our spices.  Now please understand that none of us here are “habanero” people.  We want to “taste” what we’re eating, not fry our tongues off.  That said, I have learned that Tabasco (and I love Tabasco) seems to be “absorbed” by this soup and it takes quite a bit to spice it up.  On the other hand, Sriracha chili sauce is up to the task on this one.  It provides a nice “background” heat that lets all the other flavors shine to their full extent.  I highly recommend it as the hot sauce of choice for this soup.

You’ll need:

2 Tbs olive oil

One large yellow onion, diced

1 bell pepper or several small sweet peppers, diced

3 large cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup minced cilantro or 2 Tbs coriander chutney

4 cups vegetable or chicken broth

15 oz can chick peas (garbanzo beans) drained

28 oz can tomato puree (or crushed tomatoes in puree)

1/2 cup uncooked rice

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp coriander

2 Tbs sweet chili sauce

2 tsp soy sauce

salt and pepper, to taste

1 1/2 cup natural peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)

1/2 cup honey roasted peanuts, more for garnish

Sriracha chili sauce, to taste

In a large soup pot;

Saute the onions and pepper in the olive oil over medium heat until onion softens and begins to color.  Add the garlic and saute a few minutes more.

Combine the remaining ingredients except for peanut butter, peanuts and Sriracha sauce.  Simmer over low heat until rice is done (20 minutes for instant, 35-45 minutes for long grain brown)  Add the peanut butter, peanuts then stir until well combined and simmer for 10 more minutes.  Garnish with additional peanuts and serve with Sriracha.  Enjoy!