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
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Roasted Corn, other corn methods
Since corn is in season and it's the Fourth of July, I thought I should share my new discovery about corn. My old corn cooking method was from David Rosengarten (from The Television Food Network's Taste show). For that, you put cold water in a pot, add corn, put on high, and the corn's done when it comes to a boil (living in high altitude, however, I had to alter that a bit to "boil for a few minutes").
Recently I saw an episode of TVFN's Tyler's Ultimate (with the very attractive Tyler Florence!) for Roasted Corn with Chili Lime Butter, and just had to try it.
6 ears fresh corn, unhusked since it's just me and my fiance, we usually do two, maybe three ears
1/4 pound butter (1 stick), room temperature two tablespoons-ish
2 teaspoons chili powder to taste
1 lime, zested mmmm...limey
1 lime, cut into wedges I usually forsake this for this recipe as it's limey enough and just for garnish
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place the corn in its husks directly on the oven rack and roast until the corn is soft when you press on it, 30 to 40 minutes.
While the corn is roasting, combine the butter with the chili powder and lime zest.
Peel down the husks and tie in a knot to use as a handle while eating. Fiance does this as he used to work at a restaurant and doesn't have my wussy hands Rub the corn with soft butter mixture, and garnish with a lime wedge. (This roasting method produces the sweetest corn I have ever tasted.) This is actually part of the recipe, but I agree
In similar fashion, fiance grilled corn last week at his family vacation (we don't own a grill, it's very sad!). His mother peeled the husk down banana-style, took out the silks, retied the husk back on (usually done with string, but she improvised by tying with some husk-strings), then let them soak. I believe she said "two hours," but we didn't have the time. Fiance then put them on a medium grill (or he should have as lots of fire was involved) until soft when you press them. Fiance's five-year-old nieces weren't impressed by the "burnt corn," but it tasted delicious to me! Just be careful of the flames, cook them at the highest over a medium flame, and soak them for at least two hours and it should be delicious.
