I love eating a nice hot bowl of soup or chili when it's cold outside but I'd never made it myself before.
I found this recipe for Taco Soup on The Food Network's web site.
Ingredients:
2 pounds ground beef (I used about 1.5 lbs ground turkey instead and it worked out well)
2 cups diced onions
2 (15 1/2-ounce) cans pinto beans
1 (15 1/2-ounce) can pink kidney beans
1 (15 1/4-ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can Mexican-style stewed tomatoes
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can tomatoes with chiles (I used Ro*Tel)
2 (4 1/2-ounce) cans diced green chiles
1 (4.6-ounce) can black olives, drained and sliced, optional
1/2 cup green olives, sliced, optional
1 (1 1/4-ounce) package taco seasoning mix
1 (1-ounce) package ranch salad dressing mix
Corn chips, for serving
Sour cream, for garnish
Grated cheese, for garnish
Chopped green onions, for garnish
Pickled jalapenos, for garnish
To make the soup:
-Brown the meat and onions in a large skillet. Ground beef will yield it's own oils and fats for cooking but if you are using turkey as I did, you'll want to add some oil to the pan.
-drain the excess fat, then transfer the browned beef and onions to a large slow cooker or a stockpot. I don't have a slow cooker so I cooked mine in a big stockpot on the stove.
-Add the beans, corn, tomatoes, green chiles, black olives, green olives, taco seasoning, and ranch dressing mix, and cook in a slow cooker on low for 6 to 8 hours or simmer over low heat for about 1 hour in a pot on the stove.
-To serve, place a few corn chips in each bowl and ladle soup over them. Top with sour cream, cheese, green onions and jalapenos.
This makes what I would best describe as a Mexican chili. It's got the thickness of a chili and the meat and beans made me feel like I was eating chili, especially since I topped it with my favorite chili toppings: cheddar and sour cream. The choice of beans, corn, and spices give it a taco-like taste though. The corn chips on the bottom of the bowl were the best part of the soup. It added a great flavor to the soup. It was delicious.
This makes a HUGE amount of soup. I wouldn't necessarily recommend making less though because most of the ingredients are a whole can. Unless you are making another recipe soon using all the same ingredients, it's not worth it to waste the food. It does freeze well though. I ended up freezing quite a bit of it and eating it over the next few weeks.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Taco Soup
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Vaguely Mexican Casserole
My husband was feeling creative in the kitchen last night (that sounds a little dirty, doesn't it?) and suggested this funky casserole/one-dish meal. Apparently, it's based on something that was served for lunch last week in the high school he teaches at. Here's what went into it:
2/3 c. rice
1 1/3 c. water
1 can red kidney beans
4-5 medium tomatoes, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
1 red bell pepper (green, yellow or orange would work too), diced small
1 large can corn
pinch chili powder
2 chicken thighs worth of cooked, shredded chicken meat
a healthy tsp+ garlic powder
1 tsp. paprika
2-3 heavy pinches salt
a couple grinds of black pepper (1/2 tsp.)
shredded cheddar/jack cheese
In a large saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Add the rice and turn heat to low, cook covered until most of the water has been absorbed (about 5 minutes). Turn the heat up to medium, add kidney beans, tomatoes, and spices to taste - since we were kind of making this one up on the fly, I'm not sure exactly how much of what spices went into the pan - a lot of salt and garlic powder, for sure. Cook together on medium heat until the tomatoes start to fall apart and the pepper gets softer.
Add the cooked shredded chicken (we had cooked two chicken thighs the night before, but you could use cooked breast meat instead - I think you can purchase this in the grocery store now), bell pepper and corn, mix together and cook over medium heat until the chicken has warmed through and everything looks about done. If you prefer your bell pepper a little softer, add it earlier, with the tomatoes.
Test the spicing one last time and add anything that seems to be missing. Spoon onto plates top with some shredded cheese, and enjoy! This made about 4 dinner-sized servings.
---- Apologies for the messiness of this recipe, but we definitely were making it up as we went along. All in all it turned out really well - so much so, in fact, that we ate the leftovers for dinner the NEXT NIGHT, which is unusual and definitely a stamp of approval. It was surprisingly creamy, I'm guessing because the beans and rice broke down a bit, and the corn and bell pepper added some interesting texture. Plus, by my calculations, this dish is INCREDIBLY healthy: lots of fiber, decent amount of protein (between the beans and the chicken), and low fat (just the cheese, pretty much). And so colorful, too!
I'd be curious to see how other people like it...
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Beyond a Plain Burrito
I am back from my post-qualifying exam, and thinking about food again! What better way to celebrate than making yummy burritos??
Now, my boyfriend is a simple man, and likes meat and cheese and salsa on his. But it pays to be slightly more creative! So here's my basic recipe, and then lots of yummy yummy add ins!
Ground beef (however much you need--easily adaptable to a large group). Now, you can use what you like, but I cannot recommned using 85% lean or less enough. If the meat is too lean, it gets dry. We usually use ground beef from a local butcher that comes to our farmer's market. If you have this option, I strongly recommend it!
Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Put the beef in and break it up with a wooden spoon. Season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder (not cloves--they may burn and taste nasty). Saute meat until done (no longer pink).
Once the meat is done, wrap burrito tortillas (I use Mission falls soft taco size, but use what you like) in a damp paper towel and microwave according to package directions. This will warm and soften them.
After you do this, take cheese, salsa, and sour cream out. Now I like mild cheese, and I have a microplane grater, so I just grate the cheese directly onto the meat in the burrito. But pre-grating is good too.
Place meat on tortilla. Top with cheese, sour cream, and salsa. Wrap as desired (I'm a disastrous mess at this part). YUM!
Now for add-ins:
after sauteeing meat, try sauteeing some squash or zucchini and adding it. For a vegetarian meal, saute the squash with some corn or carrots. Add cauliflower or broccoli. These make excellent burritos! Just pick a veggie that is still a little crunchy after cooking, and you're good to go! I usually go for whatever I can find at the market on Thursdays. Oh, and if you roast corn according to the previous entry, just scrape that off the cob and voila! the perfect add in!
Heat some refried beans and use those with the meat for a protein filled meal.
Cook some chicken any way you like--shred it into pieces (use a fork to hold it down, and scrape another fork over it to pull pieces off). This also works with turkey and pork.
Just remember, a quick and easy and delicious burrito isn't too much work!! Think outside the wrap and make your own delicious variations!
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Delicious salsa
I'm not a big fan of salsa out of a jar, but I love the fresh stuff. My husband and I tried our hand at homemade after having some really good salsa at Cafe de la Paz and now I'll never go back. It involves a lot of chopping, of course, but otherwise, couldn't be easier.
The quantities here are very general, pretty much everything can and should be altered to taste. We usually make a big batch and eat it over a week - it keeps well, but loses a lot of the fresh cilantro flavor after a few days. It's also a great potluck staple. Who doesn't love chips and salsa?
Ingredients:
5-8 medium tomatoes [firm varieties work best, but I buy whatever's cheap]
2 generous pinches salt
1 red onion
1-2 green or yellow bell peppers [I get a little variety pack of sweet peppers from the Mexican grocery store around the corner, they work wonderfully]
hot pepper (e.g., serrano or Anaheim) to taste. [I leave these out, personally, but if you like some spice, have a ball.]
Bunch (a couple handfuls worth) of fresh cilantro
Make it:
Cut the tomatoes into 1/4 inch chunks using a serrated knife (I use our bread knife but a regular steak knife will do). Tomatoes are kind of tricky to cut up uniformly because they're slippery, but once you get the hang of it, it's not so bad - in my experience, the best method is to cut them in half, slice the halves into wedges through the flesh side, and then cut the wedges into 4-5 chunks.
Sprinkle the tomato chunks with salt and then put them into a colander to strain off as much of the liquid as you can. The salt will help extract the liquid. I've found that this salsa tends to be pretty watery no matter what, so the longer the tomatoes drain, the better - let them hang out in the colander while you cut up the onion (small dice) and bell peppers (1/4 inch dice, remove as much of the membrane as you can).
If you do use the hot peppers, be careful to wash your hands and the cutting board thoroughly afterward. High on my list of things that suck are (1) getting capsaicin in my eyes; and (2) hot pepper flavor in a recipe where it's not wanted.
Combine the three main ingredients in your serving/storage bowl (never get more bowls dirty than is absolutely necessary. Mise en place is all well and good, but I don't have a dishwasher). If you're feeling spunky, you could throw in some pineapple chunks or mango at this point, too.
Chop up the cilantro - you can be anal retentive and pull the leaves off the stems if you want; I just chop straight off the bunch. Run the knife through your pile both vertically and horizontally to ensure a relatively fine, even chop, and then add the cilantro to the salsa. Salt and pepper to taste, making sure to take into consideration the saltiness level of your tortilla chips.
I promise my next entry will NOT prominently feature tomatoes.
