24. Pot of Gold Peanut Soup, pg.217

Wow. That's all I'm saying. After two nights of this soup, I'm still not tired of it. I'm still wanting more even after I'm full. I've been my happiest in the last two days when I was eating it. Amazing. (I should stop slobbering on my keyboard now...)

To the recipe! I used about 5 oz. fresh, sautéed mushrooms (could have put in more). I had sautéed first them in about 2 T. butter, 1/2 t. cayenne pepper, and 1 1/2 t. lime juice. I nearly ate half the pan while I waited to put them in the soup. Instead of pearl barley (lost my last bag to a pack of rodents, it seems), I used wheat berries. Give these guys a little extra time to cook if you try them -- mine cooked for just over an hour before they were done. Lastly, because I didn't have broccoli on hand, I used some pre-baked delicata squash cubes for more veggieness. I tossed them in with the mushrooms for about a minute at the end of the cooking time, just to give them some kick as well. Lastly, if you're going the dried hot pepper route, if you want your soup to be spicy, cut open the peppers into halves (so they can still be removed before consumption). I neglected to do this until pretty late in the cooking game, and missed the spicy-ness I was expecting. Though lacking in color (which the broccoli would have added), I couldn't care less as I was simply overwhelmed by the tastiness factor!

Overall: 5 out of 5 Tester Husband declared this one of the best soups he's ever had. If you like peanut butter like I do (i.e. can eat tablespoon after tablespoon of it out of the jar), you're going to LOVE this recipe!