Taco Soup

Have you ever filled out a recipe card? You know, the types our moms (if you’re in my generation) exchanged all the time, and they had notebooks or boxes filled with them? In this “All Recipes” / Google era, I don’t always appreciate what a labor of love it is to laboriously write all of the ingredients and the cooking instructions by hand onto a little card … until I do it once or twice. It is a serious labor of love.

When I got married, a friend of mine wrote out probably 20-25 recipe cards of her family’s favorite recipes/favorite recipes for entertaining a crowd. I imagine that she spent hours writing them out … what a labor of love! Of all the great recipes she gave me, this is the one that I refer to the most: taco soup.

There’s nothing fancy about this soup. Nobody’s going to call it gourmet, you’re not going to have to hunt down any special ingredients, you’re not going to be introducing anybody to new flavors or ideas. But this is a solid taco soup recipe that everybody’s sure to like. It goes down easy, it satisfies (not to mention that it’s economical, especially when you’re using elk burger instead of beef); it’s a perfect comfort food.

Serve with tortilla chips, grated cheddar cheese and sour cream (if you have it around and your crowd likes it).

Taco Soup

1/2 onion, chopped

1 lb burger

1/4 c. taco seasoning

1 tsp chili powder

3 cups hot water

3 chicken bouillon cubes (or substitute chicken broth/stock for the bouillon and water)

2 – 15 oz cans corn (or the equivalent in frozen corn)

2 – 15 oz cans diced tomatoes

1 – 28 oz can kidney or black beans

Directions

Saute onion in oil. Add the burger and cook until browned. Add taco seasoning, chili powder, water, bouillon, and tomatoes; simmer 30 min to 3 hours (depending on how much time you have … the flavors meld nicely if you simmer it for a long time). Add the corn and beans and simmer another hour. Serve with tortilla chips, cheese and sour cream.

#mexican #redmeat

Spiced Lentil Soup

This is a recipe I’ve been meaning to blog for almost a year… I guess time flies when you’re … doing other things. A friend sent me this recipe, though, after it had been given to her as “good for moms right after having a baby” (I’m sure she said it more eloquently than that). I guess it has all sorts of vitamins and minerals and great protein and veggies to replenish what your body’s lacking after just creating and birthing a new human being. It’s also great for new moms because it makes a huge batch that will feed a too-tired-to-cook family for a few days.

Since I’m going to be in that category soon (we’re still in the building process but we could be in the birthing process any minute now), I thought I’d make up a batch of this soup to freeze; it seemed even more appealing after I bought a Costco rotisserie chicken for salad and had some leftover meat, plus the bones for making stock.

Here’s the recipe, plus notes from Andrea (thanks, Andrea!).

Spiced Lentil Soup Serves 10 (I think it serves WAY more than 10, personally) 1/2 lb italian sausage 1/2 cup diced onion 1/3 cup barley 3 garlic cloves, minced 3 quarts chicken stock (I thought this was a ridiculous amount, so reduced this by a few cups) 1 cup lentils 1 whole chicken breast, uncooked 1/2 cup parsley, chopped 1 can garbanzo beans, undrained 1/2 lb fresh or frozen spinach (or kale) 12 oz mild or medium salsa Brown sausage, onion, barley, and garlic in a skillet. Transfer to a slow cooker or a large stock pot. Add the chicken stock, lentils, chicken breast and parsley Simmer for as long as you desire or until lentils are tender. Remove chicken breast, discarding bone and cartilage. Shred meat and return to soup. Add beans, spinach and salsa. Heat through. Additional notes: For a gluten-free option, I replace the barley with rice and also added about a half a cup of quinoa at the end. I’m also too lazy to used chicken with the bone and skin, so I just usually use shredded chicken I have in the freezer, or boneless, skinless breasts. The other day I made a similar soup, but used smoked turkey instead of sausage and chicken and added some white beans instead of garbanzo beans (also just threw in whatever veggies were getting old in the fridge). I also now think quinoa is a staple in this soup because it adds a cool crunchy texture. This soup has been an awesome way to get my daughter to eat her veggies.

#Beans #chicken #lentils #sausage

New York Times No-Knead Bread

This is my current favorite bread to make: New York Times No-Knead Bread. It takes a little bit more planning (but no more effort) than the method from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day, but I’m liking the flavor, crumb and crust better right now. Don’t get me wrong, both are great — it’s hard to go wrong with fresh bread no matter how you look at it, especially now that it’s cooled off enough in Montana to leave your oven on.

While we’re on the subject, though, I DID try cooking the “5 Minutes a Day” bread in my slow-cooker after seeing it on Pinterest. It turned out pretty well — not my favorite, but, again, even mediocre homemade bread is pretty fantastic and this is a way to have fresh bread in the middle of the summer when you don’t want to turn your oven on for hours on end. Here’s the link, for future reference.

(PS – we had half a loaf of this bread leftover this morning and it made for some great french toast!)

#bread