Cooking Day 6: Taco Soup
Okay, ya'll. I don't know if I have cooked this much, in one week since I first got married. Our lives in the last few years have been so busy that we were really eating out a minimum of 3 nights a week.
Tonight dinner was Taco Soup. Now, I will admit, as a Hispanic/Latina/Chicana/Mexicana, I never ate this dish growing up. This is not Mexican food. This is not an authentic Mexican dish, this is a Tex-Mex dish if I ever saw one, but I am not mad at it. The moment I was introduced to this dish, I was hooked. Thanks to Amanda Shortt for introducing it to me. She wrote her recipe on a post-it note and I keep it up on a whiteboard in my kitchen.
I had a container of fresh charro beans that I cooked last week when I made chalupas. I needed to use these beans TODAY. I also had some leftover taco meat left from that night as well. Now, really, I could have had chalupas again, but someone didn't want them again so soon...whatever. Like every recipe I use, I deviated from the given recipe just a bit, sorry Amanda.
So, I took another pound of hamburger meat from the freezer and thawed it. I took that meat and browned it in my enameled cast iron Martha Stewart 6-quart pot, no oil, nothing. To break down the ground beef, I use my handy dandy Mix & Chopper from Pampered Chef. (Did I mention yet how much I love Pampered Chef?) Honestly, I've never been able to thoroughly chop up ground beef as well as I can with this tool Don't get a cheapie one from the store, get the actual Pampered Chef one, I promise, you will NOT be disappointed. When the raw ground beef was cooked I added my leftover taco meat.once that was warmed up, I added the Ranch Dressing dry mix and the Taco Seasoning and mix together. Next up, I add one can of Rotel diced tomatoes and my container of fresh beans. These beans had bacon and were so delicious for the chalupas.
Once all of that was mixed up well, I had one more leftover item that I have never used before in this dish. Last night we had about a half a cup of the cream cheese mixture from last night. Tony just could not bear to throw out that little bit, good thing he was adamant because this was the moment I added it to this dish. Once the cream cheese mixture was melted and mixed through I added one bag of frozen corn. At this point, the dish is going to look clumpy...I know...trust me...just put the lid on and walk away for about 10 minutes. The liquid from the frozen corn will add more liquid to the soup, but when you come back in 10 minutes, if you feel like you need more caldo, add water at this point one cup at a time. Once you get as much as you want, let it simmer for about 10 more minutes just so it gets heated through.
That is it. Serve it and top it. We use sour cream, shredded cheese, diced avocado (which I didn't have...thanks COVID-19) and crushed tortilla chips. Enjoy.
Tonight dinner was Taco Soup. Now, I will admit, as a Hispanic/Latina/Chicana/Mexicana, I never ate this dish growing up. This is not Mexican food. This is not an authentic Mexican dish, this is a Tex-Mex dish if I ever saw one, but I am not mad at it. The moment I was introduced to this dish, I was hooked. Thanks to Amanda Shortt for introducing it to me. She wrote her recipe on a post-it note and I keep it up on a whiteboard in my kitchen.
I had a container of fresh charro beans that I cooked last week when I made chalupas. I needed to use these beans TODAY. I also had some leftover taco meat left from that night as well. Now, really, I could have had chalupas again, but someone didn't want them again so soon...whatever. Like every recipe I use, I deviated from the given recipe just a bit, sorry Amanda.
So, I took another pound of hamburger meat from the freezer and thawed it. I took that meat and browned it in my enameled cast iron Martha Stewart 6-quart pot, no oil, nothing. To break down the ground beef, I use my handy dandy Mix & Chopper from Pampered Chef. (Did I mention yet how much I love Pampered Chef?) Honestly, I've never been able to thoroughly chop up ground beef as well as I can with this tool Don't get a cheapie one from the store, get the actual Pampered Chef one, I promise, you will NOT be disappointed. When the raw ground beef was cooked I added my leftover taco meat.once that was warmed up, I added the Ranch Dressing dry mix and the Taco Seasoning and mix together. Next up, I add one can of Rotel diced tomatoes and my container of fresh beans. These beans had bacon and were so delicious for the chalupas.
Once all of that was mixed up well, I had one more leftover item that I have never used before in this dish. Last night we had about a half a cup of the cream cheese mixture from last night. Tony just could not bear to throw out that little bit, good thing he was adamant because this was the moment I added it to this dish. Once the cream cheese mixture was melted and mixed through I added one bag of frozen corn. At this point, the dish is going to look clumpy...I know...trust me...just put the lid on and walk away for about 10 minutes. The liquid from the frozen corn will add more liquid to the soup, but when you come back in 10 minutes, if you feel like you need more caldo, add water at this point one cup at a time. Once you get as much as you want, let it simmer for about 10 more minutes just so it gets heated through.
That is it. Serve it and top it. We use sour cream, shredded cheese, diced avocado (which I didn't have...thanks COVID-19) and crushed tortilla chips. Enjoy.
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