Confetti Pepperoni soup

So, I made a beet soup out of the 10 things you should eat book that I had checked out of the library, and no one liked it -including me and I actually like beets.  So I still had 1 beet that I hadn't used.  I found this recipe in the Family Feasts for $75 a week.  It was great - used a lot of things I already had.  For some reason I kept thinking it wasn't very tasty and haven't used the left overs, but it was good.  A bit spicy from the pepper, and I didn't get the beet and carrots cooked well enough.  I even cooked the veggies a bit longer than the recipe said, and they were still a bit too crunchy.  I'd definitely cook them even longer.

Ingredients

• 1 cup rice
• 6 cups stock -it called for beef broth - I used 1 container of beef stock - and 1 cup vegetable stock
• 1 14 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 onion, minced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 carrots, thinly sliced
• 1 beet, peeled and diced
• 1/2 cup chopped pepperoni
• 1 cup uncooked small pasta (like elbow or shell)
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• salt to taste

Directions

1. combine rice, broth, and tomatoes in a soup pot and bring to a boil. (I'd add the carrots and beet here too.)
2. While the broth comes to a boil, heat oil in a small skillet and saute onion until softened.  Add garlic and cook for another minute or 2.  Add onion, garlic and remaining ingredients to the soup.  Cook until vegetables are tender and pasta is cooked al dente, 10-15 minutes.  (I'd probably wait to add the pasta next time until the veggies had cooked for 5-10 minutes.)