Taco Soup, Take One
Comments(15)
Sometime before Christmas, I decided to take advantage of all the sales out there and buy myself a crock pot. Technically a slow cooker, since mine was not made by Rival, but you know what I mean. I immediately had to find a bunch of recipes to try out, and this is the first of them. Expect plenty more crock pot recipes coming up in the relatively near future. I love tacos, taco salads, nachos, that sort of thing, so Taco Soup jumped right out at me.
I found this recipe at Slow and Simple. I thought it sounded promising, but there are a lot of taco soup recipes available out there and I have to say this one is not going to be my favorite. Part of that could be my fault as I think I added too much water, but even though this was good, it just didn’t have quite what I was looking for. That’s why it’s Taco Soup, Take One. I fully intend to try a different recipe soon! But let’s get started with this one, maybe you’ll like it better than I did.
You’ll need 1 lb ground beef, 2 pkg taco seasoning mix, 1 can corn, 1 can black beans, 1 can tomatoes with green chiles, 1 onion, 1 green pepper (The original recipe also called for black olives, which I don’t like, and tomatillos as an optional ingredient. I left both out.) Don’t worry, my meat’s not bad, it’s just still frozen.
Gratuitous picture just to show off my new crockpot. Woohoo!
Brown and drain your ground beef on the stove top, then add it to the bottom of your crock pot.
Add in your two packets of taco seasoning mix. I kind of stirred it in before moving on to the next step, but I don’t think that’s a requirement.
Throw in your chopped green pepper…
And your chopped up onion.
Followed by the 16 oz can of tomatoes with green chiles, undrained. (Sidenote- this may have also contributed to why I wasn’t thrilled with this soup. I got the hot can of tomatoes, but I don’t like spicy AT ALL. It was too much for me, I may have liked this better with a milder can of tomatoes.)
Add your can of black beans, undrained. This is where I started to worry about this recipe… have you SEEN what canned beans are floating in?? Still, I poured it into the crock pot.
Finally, add the can of whole kernel corn, also undrained.
I gave it a quick stir to make sure all the goodies were distributed.
Then I added two cans of water to fill the crock pot. If I were going to make this soup again, I’d cut it back to one can of water, and just keep an eye on it. I felt like this soup was not thick enough, and this is probably why.
Cover the crock pot, and cook on low for 5 or more hours.
This is what the final product looked like, dished up into a bowl.
I added a handful of cheese and sour cream to the bowl. Not pictured, the handful of Fritos I also added to help “thicken” it up.
If you make this, let me know how it turns out. I wasn’t impressed, but maybe it will float your boat!
1 lb lean ground beef, browned and drained
2 pkg. taco seasoning mix
1 16 oz can tomatoes with green chilies, undrained.
1 16 oz can black beans, undrained.
1 16 oz can corn, undrained
1 can black olives, chopped or sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
4 tomatillos, chopped (optional)
Place everything in a large crockpot, add water, if necessary to fill. Cook on low for 5 or more hours until flavors are blended. Top each bowl with a handful of shredded cheddar cheese. Serve with sour cream, taco chips, and salsa on the side.
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Hi Jenn – I’m not usually a big commenter, but this post inspired me – Congrats on your new slow cooker. I LOVE mine! I use it at least once a week! I don’t know if you are a big blog reader but I stumbled upon this blog at the beginning of 2008. She posted a recipe everyday for a year, and it was the coolest site. She did everything in her crockpot. I do think a book about her experience will be coming out, and she is done with her experiment but will post occassionally. Anyway, sorry for the long explanantion, but here is the link if you’re interested!
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/
Have fun!
~~Tanya
I’ve made something similar, but I’ve only used a cup of liquid added to it. I didn’t drain the beans or tomatoes either, so that added some liquid.
I’m like you, I like my soups chunky! (and I heart my slow cooker!)
Thank you for this recipe. It looks fabulous!! I am always on the lookout for new soups, especially during the Winter. I will be trying this one out very soon:)
I kept thinking, “that sounds gross,” and then I got to the picture of the recipe made and thought, “Oh… that looks yummy.” Darnit now I want soup
Congrats on the new slow cooker! I love mine!!
I foresee a version of Taco Soup in my future.
I think that the idea of this soup sounds great but that for my taste buds that it will need a little tweaking. Thanks for sharing it though
This sounds like such a good meal to have in the winter time. Thanks for the great recipe. By the way, your pictures are beautiful.
I have got to try making taco soup…everyone is raving about it!
I love tacos, I love soup, How could this be anything but perfect? Thanks!
mmm I love taco soup!!
I typically try to avoid looking at pictures of food, but that soup sure does look yummy. Wonder if my kids would like it?
I am not sure I could cook any more unless it is in the crock pot. I love the sound of this taco soup, I am going to try that.
I have had my crock pot for about 20 years and I love it. It must be making a comeback since I just picked up a new magazine with all crockpot recipes. I’m trying one this weekend making a bourbon french toast. I made split pea soup yesterday…it was delicious!
You could thicken this by adding either some cornmeal, or a can of refried beans. Either would contribute to the southwestern type flavor and thicken.
This looks yummy and easy to make. I think my kids would like it too. I can’t wait to try it out.
[...] in January, I posted a recipe for taco soup, which I called Take One. It was alright, but didn’t quite have the taste I was looking for. So the search continued. [...]