UnStuffed Banana Pepper Soup
Creamy and cheesy with a hint of heat, unstuffed banana pepper soup makes a perfect cold weather lunch or dinner. Just add bread.
You have to love regional dishes—even if they aren’t yours! Today’s soup is based on a dish popular in the Buffalo area, Stuffed Banana Peppers. Amy, from Savory Moments, turned it into a soup to get all the great flavor in a new format.
‘Cause who doesn’t love soup in the winter (and see below for more ideas)!
I’ve enjoyed stuffed peppers before, from bell peppers to Stuffed Hatch Chiles. And deep in my freezer was a bag of banana peppers, saved from summer’s CSA harvest. Sounds like fate!
I made a couple small changes when I made this soup, but my version is pretty close to the original . It received great reviews both in her comments and in my tasting kitchen!
How to Prepare UnStuffed Banana Pepper Soup
One of the advantages of doing “unstuffed” soups or casseroles is that they are usually a lot easier than the original. So, not surprisingly this was easy to make.
You start by frying ground pork
Add onions, peppers garlic and seasonings.
Stir in cream cheese
Top with grated cheese, breadcrumbs and parsley to serve.
Tips on Serving Unstuffed Banana Pepper Soup
The original recipe called for serving the soup in a broiler safe crock, topped with cheese and breadcrumbs, then set under the broiler. I didn’t have broiler safe dishes, so I sprinkled with cheese (which melted anyway), then topped with toasted breadcrumbs and parsley. Setting in a 400 F oven might work well also–but I was too excited to wait 🙂
The dish is hearty and filling and doesn’t need a lot of sides. Like all soups, it’s delicious served with a crusty bread. For a slightly larger meal, add a salad and you’ll really put it over the top nutritionally.
UnStuffed Banana Pepper Soup
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1 large onion chopped
- 7 medium/large banana peppers seeded and chopped
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon pepper or to taste
- 1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 1 t Worcestershire sauce
- 1/8 t cayenne pepper or to taste
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 4 cups chicken stock or broth
- 1 cup milk
- 4 oz cream cheese softened and cubed
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella for topping
- 4 tablespoons breadcrumbs for topping
Instructions
- In a stock pot or Dutch oven, brown the pork over medium heat, crumbling and stirring until the pork just starts to turn crusty and fragrant. Drain excess fat, leaving about a Tablespoon.
- Add the onion, peppers, garlic, salt, pepper, cayenne, Worcestershire sauce and Italian seasoning. Cook, stirring often, until the vegetables become just tender. Stir in the flour and cook for another minute.
- Slowly stir in the chicken broth and milk. Bring the mixture to a boil then reduce heat. Simmer, stirring often, until the mixture thickens.
- Add the cubed cream cheese and stir until melted. Taste and adjust salt, pepper and cayenne as needed.
- For each serving, fill a soup bowl or broiler-proof serving bowl. Top each with shredded mozzarella and a sprinkle of toasted breadcrumbs. Optionally (and only with broiler safe dishes), broil until golden and melted
Nutrition
Winter Warm Up Soups!
- Black Bean Butternut Squash Soup by That Recipe
- Chicken Soba Noodle Soup by Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
- Curried Lentil Soups by Making Miracles
- Easy Split Pea and Kielbasa Soup by Cheese Curd In Paradise
- Ginger Chicken and Quinoa Soup by Palatable Pastime
- Italian Sausage Vegetable Soup by A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
- Slow Cooker Zuppa Tuscana Recipe by Blogghetti
- Unstuffed Banana Pepper Soup by Art of Natural Living
- Vegetarian Winter Minestrone Soup by Magical Ingredients
We share Recipes From Our Dinner Table! Join our group and share your recipes, too! While you’re at it, join our Pinterest board, too!
- Pork and Cabbage in Cream Sauce
- Creamy Roasted Garlic Soup
Wondering if this recipe will be as good without the sausage. Need a recipe for a vegetarian and will add in carrots and celery instead of the sausage. Fingers crossed.
Since I haven’t tried it, I can’t say–perhaps add some additional seasoning too? I’d love to hear how it goes if you get the chance to reply back.
I do have some wonderful tested vegetarian/vegan soups for fall including https://artofnaturalliving.com/tuscan-white-bean-kale-soup/ (vegan), and https://artofnaturalliving.com/chili-relleno-soup/ (vegetarian). Well truly I have sooo many–just let me know if you’d like a list!
This looks so good! What a great combination of flavors!
It’s one of our favorites Suzanne!
Just had some,it was delicioso,it also had celery in it and maybe a dash of Rosmery too!
I like celery and rosemary!
Do you think this would be messed up if I used heavy cream instead of milk?
No cream should be fine. It would be extra rich then!
Can this be made in a crock pot? Sounds delicious!
I don’t see why not!
Thank you for the recipe! I made it and have in my fridge right now. It’s likely too spicy for my wife; any suggestions on how to “cool it down” a tad or is that accomplished with the toppings (mozz and bread crumbs)?
Dairy is usually the best for cooling spicy food. If you top her bowl with a dollop of sour cream that may be the most helpful–or you could try adding some additional cream cheese. Usually this soup isn’t especially hot, though banana peppers vary in heat–you may have gotten an unusual batch or maybe a stray hotter pepper snuck in. I hope this helps.
Thank you! I’m warming up now. Added the cheddar early and maybe I’ll toss a little more cream cheese in if it’s still spicy. Great recipe for my garden peppers!
I love all the pepper recipes in the fall! Hope you enjoy!
I am from Buffalo too!! Made this for a soup party and it was such a success!!! I didn’t do the bread crumbs just had a side of croutons for people to add. Shared this recipe with a coworker who loves it too!!
Great recipe!
Thanks Lisa! I love the crouton idea! I’m going to have to try to revive the croutons I made growing up now that you mention it! BTW, I am Wisconsin not Buffalo, though we both need the warmth I guess!
I grew banana peppers in my garden this year and they weren’t really big enough to stuff so I made this soup. Well actually I’ve made it twice now. It’s the best! My husband keeps asking when I will make it again.
My husband & I just loved this soup. I added some fresh corn to it & made it even more delicious. I will definitely make this again.
So glad you enjoyed Donna! Love the corn idea! Thanks for sharing!
I just harvested some banana peppers today. Frankly I didn’t know what to do with them, but found this recipe while doing some research. This soup is amazing! Absolutely delicious!thank you for sharing it…
So glad you enjoyed! (I made it so many times when I first found it!)
This is a seriously good recipe! I do so appreciate this soup because banana pepper plants yield way more peppers that I can possibly use up in other ways. I try to go as close as possible to the ingredient list and instructions in a recipe the first time I try it, but I didn’t have any ground pork, so I went with Italian sausage. Worked out perfectly. Thank you!
Italian sausage sounds great for this Gin! So glad you enjoyed–we love it too!
Thanks for sharing this recipe. I’ve been trying to find recipes to use up my banana peppers. I’m the only one in my family that will eat this, so I’ll take some for lunches at work for a couple of days. The only thing I will do differently next time is use sausage instead of regular ground pork to up the flavor even more.
I so glad you enjoyed this Jamie! Love the idea of using sausage. And on the banana peppers, if a recipe calls for sliced or chopped ripe bell peppers I sometimes use banana peppers–I always seem to have more of them! Though maybe not anymore now that I’m making this soup!
I really have a concern about this soup. I have made it several times and it is loved by all. My family of 17 gave it 17 thumbs up the first time I made it. This time, I happened to look at the information on the bottom and it says it has 746ml of carbohydrates?? I am a diabetic and I love this soup, but don’t understand this value.
Sorry for the late response–this was in my spam folder. If you look closely, the value follows the description on the nutrition label. So it is 746 mg of sodium, not carbohydrates. Yes, that would make no sense as carbs! I should caution you, however, that online nutrition labels shouldn’t be used to base health decisions on. I am happy to hear though that your family loves this soup–we do too and I just made a triple batch!
Love this deconstructed version of the stuffed peppers! I bet it warms your heart and your belly!
Perfect for a cold day David! And I think you may have gotten as much snow as we in Northeast Wisconsin this winter (though Southeast WI including my daughter, minding our house, is getting socked)
At first I thought it was made with banana and peppers, Lol. Sorry for my ignorance, this is the first time I heard of banana peppers. Can I do it with regular sweet pepper?
The flavor would change slightly, but I think it would work.
What a delicious creamy soup! I love the stuffed banana peppers. I would definitely try when I harvest some banana peppers. Thanks for the recipe.
You should try this! I did three new soup recipes this week and this was my favorite!
I gather banana peppers have the shape of bananas? Not something I’ve heard of before. I think I prefer the soup concept to stuffed peppers.
They are longer and thinner like bananas but don’t really have the curve. And they are thinner walled than bell peppers. This soup finally has me appreciating their uniqueness!
My husband LOVES banana peppers. I can’t wait to make this for him!
I am going to have to try growing some this summer!
Banana peppers sound fantastic. I don’t think I have ever had those in soup but will have to remedy that one.
Happily I think I have enough frozen for a second round of this sound because we loved it!
What a creamy delicious soup! I definitely need to make this soup. My gang loves banana peppers (all peppers really) and would drool over this one.
I was surprised (perhaps naively) that the banana peppers were so distinctive in this. I sometimes use them interchangeably with bell peppers.