Peanut Butter Soup (Thai Style) - total time 45 minutes

When I think of peanut butter, I think of desserts and sandwiches... never for dinner!  I was first introduced to a dinner entree two years ago at Northstar Cafe where they have a Thai dish with rice, peanut sauce, and vegetables.  I'll try pretty much anything once, I do love peanut butter, and discovered I loved it!  I tried my hand at recreating it at home later that week and it turned out pretty good.  But since then, I kind of forgot about it until I started researching different vegetarian recipes (you know, more than just the normal go-to meals with this whole 40 day challenge).  A lot of Thai food kept popping up in my searches and in the cookbooks I was looking through.  

So enter this soup...  Even though I knew I had enjoyed previous dinners using peanut butter, I was nervous all over again.  Turns out, there was nothing to be nervous about!  The soup is rich and creamy.  The peanut butter is really the star ingredient with only hints of the tomato juice and vegetable broth.  The rice and garbanzo beans give the soup some texture and the spices really compliment the sweet peanut butter with a slight kick. Definitely a recipe worth trying, even if you are as nervous as I was!

1 15oz. can of garbanzo beans, rinsed and peeled
2 cups vegetable broth
2 cups tomato juice
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup brown rice
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cinnamon
salt and pepper

1.  Saute onions and garlic in a little olive oil.  Add broth, juice, and spices, bring to a boil and lower to a simmer for 15 minutes.
2.  While simmering, rinse and peel the garbanzo beans.  Add rice, beans, and peanut butter into the broth and simmer for another 10 minutes or until the rice is cooked.