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
Thursday, December 21, 2006
The Usefulness of Rachael Ray, and other Snowbound Thoughts
Okay, so I'm moving this weekend and I just got hit by Denver's "Blizzard of 2006." This creates two (culinary) problems: All my dishes are packed and all my food is at it's bare minimum, and I can't go out and buy anything as all the supermarkets have been closed down.
Last night we had a little less than a half chicken breast and some assorted foods, and we wanted to make some warm soup to get through the night. We really didn't have enough broth, but we have a fridge full of wine from a going-away party earlier in the week, so I thought I could make a tasty liquid. As I'm cooking I realize that I have a can of crushed tomatoes, and I realized that I'm saved. Yes, saved.
While watching her show makes me want to die, Rachael Ray usually has some recipes that can be easily changed to fit your situation so that you, too, can have a tasty meal with some pantry staples (and really, we're down to just the pantry duct tape at this point!).
So, one of our favorite Rachael Ray recipes is her *sigh* Italian Sub Stoup. We had recently altered the recipe to make an Italian sausage stoup for an appetizer party, so I decided to save the day and make a delicious concoction that I probably wouldn't have thought of without her.
I took the 3/4 of a box of broth, juice-box sized box of stock, some leftover wine, and the crushed tomatoes to create a hearty base. I then added some cooked chicken, two carrots, garlic, half an onion, and bit of green pepper to create a "stoup." We added the last of our croutons and parmesan cheese and had a delightful and healthy meal (when our alternative was about 1000 crackers). It's not so much Rachael Ray's exact recipes, but really her methods that will come in handy in a pinch.
But please, do yourself a favor and DON'T watch her talk show.
Monday, November 13, 2006
Hearty Sausage and Pumpkin Soup
Continuing the pumpkin kick...
My boyfriend and I whipped up a hearty sausage and pumpkin soup last night, perfect for a rainy Sunday night. We just sort of threw things in the pot willy-nilly, and here's what ended up in there:
- 6 hot Italian sausages
- 1 onion, chopped
- 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1/2 chipotle pepper with adobo sauce (chop up the pepper)
- 1 29-oz can of pure pumpkin
- 1 15-oz can of black beans
- 3 cups chicken stock
- 1/2 cup half-and-half
- salt & pepper
- cumin, to taste
- chili powder, to taste
- pinch of cinnamon
- Chipotle Tabasco sauce, to taste
- lime
Remove sausages from the casings, and cook in a large stockpot until browned. Add onions, garlic, and chipotle pepper with adobo sauce. Cook until onions are translucent, season the mixture with S&P, cumin, and chili powder.
Add pumpkin and black beans, mix with sausage before adding chicken stock. Add the cinnamon and more spices/Tabasco as you like, simmer for about 20 minutes. Stir in the half-and-half, serve when heated through. Finish with a squeeze of the lime over individual bowls.
This was especially delicious with hunks of home-made cornbread dropped into the soup. The high-fiber content makes the soup quite filling, so I would say that this makes 6 substantial portions.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Curried pumpkin soup / how to break down a pumpkin
The pumpkin that we never got around to carving on Halloween needed to be dealt with. I originally wanted to break it down into chunks, but that wasn't going to work - the skin was impossible to peel and the shell was too hard to cut it into wedges and "peel" with a knife. I managed to crack it in half and scoop out the seeds,* then put both halves on a cookie sheet in a 450°F oven for about an hour (it was a big pumpkin). Once the flesh was fork tender, I took it out and let it cool.
* I set the seeds aside to dry, coated them in kosher salt, and then toasted them in the warm oven after the pumpkin itself was done baking. They make a great little snack... if you're feeling adventurous, try adding some other spices to the mix - paprika, curry powder, cayenne pepper or even just a little black pepper would be tasty.
When I went to go break it down, I discovered that it was pretty stringy - not surprising since it was so big. So I broke out the trusty food processor (you could use a blender to do this) and processed it in three or four batches. I ended up with a smooth, if watery, pureé, similar to what you would get out of a can.
So, what does one do with eight cups of pumpkin puree? Make a soup, of course. Pumpkin curries are one of my favorite Thai dishes, and I keep stumbling across really delicous-sounding recipes for pumpkin with curry (or curry-like flavors), so I decided to make an attempt at my own combination. I am happy to say that it came out really well. The pumpkin is pretty mild, but I think the flavor comes through the coconut milk and curry. The lime and cilantro add depth, but they aren't 100% essential.
This made a pretty big recipe (6-8 servings); you can certainly cut it in half.
Curried pumpkin soup
1/4 c. olive oil
2 onions, diced fine
1 tsp. salt
6 Tbsp. curry paste
1 Tbsp. grated fresh ginger (or 1 1/2 tsp. powdered)
2 c. (16 oz) vegetable broth
5 cups pumpkin puree (equivalent to about 2 x 15.5 oz cans)
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 x 13.5 oz can coconut milk (optionally - set aside 1 Tbsp or so to drizzle on top of each bowl)
(optional) lime juice, cilantro
Directions:
In a dutch oven or similarly large pan, warm olive oil over medium heat. Add the diced onions and salt and cook until onions are translucent, about 10 minutes (since there are so many of them). Add the curry paste and fresh ginger and stir well. Cook another 2 minutes, just to get the flavors all out of the curry paste. Add the vegetable broth, pumpkin puree, brown sugar and coconut milk and stir well. Bring to a boil, then simmer 10 minutes.
If you want a super smooth texture, run the soup through your food processor or blender 1-2 c. at a time (just don't fill your blender more than halfway full, or you may end up cleaning the soup off your ceiling). I decided that the texture of the onion pieces wouldn't bug me enough to justify breaking out the blender again, so I skipped this step.
Just prior to serving, squeeze the juice of 1/4 lime over each bowl; top with 1-2 tsp. chopped fresh cilantro.
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As for the rest of the pumpkin, it will probably get made into this Pumpkin Pecan Coffee Cake from Once Upon a Feast for breakfast tomorrow. :)
