Taco Soup

Taco Soup

This recipe is for a lovely soup which can be served right out of the crock pot. Bring up the temperature with hot peppers, hot as you like. I have a few foods which are a staple around my house in winter, e.g., spaghetti, shepherds pie, chili and this hearty meal. I've included the things I do to make this soup my own from the original recipe.

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Variations:

1. Serve with one or more of the following toppings: shredded cheddar cheese, chopped fresh tomatoes, chopped fresh onion, chopped avocado, sour cream and/or crushed tortilla chips.

2. Crumble as many tortilla chips in the bottom of the bowl as you want then serve the soup over it.

3. Or, use chips to scoop up the soup (I make mine more chunky and meaty than soupy) and enjoy.

4. Rice is a wonderful bed for this soup as well.

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I also made these slight changes when I made it:

1 lb ground turkey and 1 lb ground beef (actually for a double recipe 1 of the ground turkey and 3 of the beef)

1-2 cubes of beef bouillon

1 or more of the following additions: chili ready diced tomatoes (i can only find this in a Wal-mart brand), 1 can rotel tomatoes and ground chili's, 1 can black beans, fire roasted diced tomatoes, 1 cup fresh tomatoes and 3 - 6 jalapenos (all chopped and sauteed with onions), 2-4 garlic cloves diced and sauteed with onion mixture, 1 bell pepper diced and sauteed with onion mixture.

Things I do:

*Rinse everything which comes out of a can except the tomato sauces, corn and baked beans.

*Cook my own black beans and garbanzo beans (garbanzo's are optional).

*If I recently cooked pasta or rice, I add the leftovers to get rid of them.

*Use the corn with it's juice.

*Rinse the hominy.

*Use both hominy and corn rather than either or.

*This serves well over rice, tortilla chips, in flower tortillas and probably corn tortillas. It's also nice as a bowl of stew.

*To tone down the heat, I use mild whenever possible and substitute in more bell pepper for the hot peppers I substitute out.

*Use a bit of sugar or honey as well (about a 1/4 to 1/2 cup).

*This also works with chicken. When I prep chicken for cooking, I boil it and then bone it; discarding the skin and bones of course. I use chicken quarters rather than breast as I don't have to worry about it getting dried out in the soup but removing the skin and bones and fat still is rather lean.

*To make this even more inexpensive and hearty healthy substitute the additional varieties of beans for the meat.

*De-gas my dried beans by soaking for more than a day sometimes as long as 3 days. I pour off the frothy water several times a day and replace it with clean water and salt then repeat. When I cook the beans I rinse beans and replace the water several times then bring them up to a boil again. After the final rinsing, once they've reached a roaring boil, I turn it down low (until done) which for me is 2 on the electric stove.

*Since this recipe makes a very large amount (~7 qts) I portion it into small serving containers and keep them in the freezer, thawing only a few at a time.

*Here's a wonderful conversion chart for visitors who use metric cooking measurements.

This dish is a candidate for making in the wonderbag. See my hub, The WonderBag, to see what I'm talking about. This would be something I could prepare over the weekend, set to boil in the morning before heading to work, then arrive home to the wonderful aroma of a favored winter meal. No need for all that wasted energy going into keeping the crock pot going while I'm away. I know there are a few recipes out there for Taco soup, but I've been making this for years this way with no complaints from anyone.