The Story:
“You bake, so you must be a really good cook.”
A common point of confusion. Baking and cooking are very different things. Baking is all about ratios and chemistry while cooking is all about technique and education.
I may know my way around the kitchen with a piping bag, but when it comes to meat and potatoes, I feel a little lost. My knife skills are dreadful, cooking dinner for company stresses me out, I live off of quesadillas and grilled cheese and I don’t even own a frying pan.
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The day had to come when I started posting food other than desserts. Well that day is here. Ta-dah! Don’t worry, I will still post weekly dessert recipes but I figured some of my readers may want a meal idea every once and a while. Plus, this will give me a reason to work on my cooking skills (aka wife skills)!
So what sort of recipes can you expect to see? Easy recipes. I try to keep my dessert recipes simple and delicious and I want to do the same with the “real” food. I want learn how to cook and document it all. I don’t care to use all the fancy lingo (if I do I will explain it) and I don’t want to make something so extravagant that no one will ever make it for their own family.
Nervous? Me too! I have no doubt that I can learn to make delicious meals, but photographing them and making them LOOK delicious? That’s the toughest part for me. Wish me luck!
Taco Soup
Ingredients
Soup:
- drizzle of olive oil
- 1 yellow onion chopped
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 1 taco seasoning packet check pkg. and make sure it's used for 1 lb. meat
- 2 small zucchini chopped (optional)
- 1 can of corn whole kernels
- 1 can of whole black beans rinsed
- 1 can Rotel tomatoes
- 1 can diced petite tomatoes
- 1 jalapeño optional (diced and seeds removed)
- 1 C. water add more or less depending on how much soup you want to make
Add-in options:
- tortilla chips you HAVE to use these
- grated cheddar cheese optional (but amazing)
- sour cream optional (but amazing)
- cilantro optional
- lime slices optional
Instructions
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1. Heat a large soup pot. Once hot, drizzle with olive oil and sauté onions for 3-4 minutes.
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2. Add ground beef and taco seasoning and use a large wooden spoon (or whatever you have that won't melt) to break up the beef. Continue to stir around to cook the beef evenly.
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3. Add the chopped zucchini. I like to add it a little before the beef is done cooking.
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4. Once the beef is cooked, add corn, black beans, Rotel, tomatoes, jalapeño and water.
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5. Stir and let heat until hot all the way through.
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6. To serve, fill soup bowls, sprinkle with cheddar cheese, crush a handful of tortilla chips over it and give each a dollop of sour cream and some chopped cilantro. The lime can be squeezed over for a little extra "zing."
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NOTE: You'll want plenty of tortilla chips, they're like your "croutons."
If you don’t add much water to the soup, you can call it “Taco Chili.”
As for which Add-ins I would suggest? Do the tortilla chips and sour cream for sure! The cheese makes it sinfully good, but you add a lot more calories that way. And the cilantro and lime just keep it fresh and not too heavy, but they really aren’t needed.
Chop up your zucchini and onion as big or as small are you like. The zucchini is optional but it’s a nice vegetable to sneak in there.
Sauté your onions. You can skip this if you are in a hurry and just go ahead and add the beef, but I like to get my onions really soft.
Add your beef!
And your taco seasoning packet! You can add your own spices if you want instead, but I just find the packet to be really easy and worth the 99 cents.
Add the zucchini! If you are trying to “hide” the vegetable from kids or picky eaters, you can chop it up really small.
Meat is cooked, time to add everything else to the pot!
Throw is all in there and start stirring!
Fiesta time!
mmm looks delicious!
I have followed you for a while, used your recipes MANY times! I love that you are all cupcakes and baking, don’t let peer pressure lead you away from what you are good at!! 😉 I’m sure from your obvious dedication to your craft you will be a wonderful cook, but just know we all that follow you… love you just the way your are!!
I don’t think cooking is about skill and education. I think it is just a matter for a good palette. You get to be creative and play with ingredients. With cooking, you have much more control of what you put in and your outcome.
We’re having a cold Fall day here in the ATX, this looks delicious and I think will hit the spot! Thanks for the recipe.
I was actually wondering when u would get into posting dinner ideas. I love ur cupcake recipes; but nothing wrong with trying something new. Looks yummy! Everyone loves tacos!
Good for you Lizzy! I’m excited to see this new adventure. This soup looks DELISH and will be making it ASAP. 🙂
I’ve been wanting to make tortilla soup for a very long time. Now I want this one too!
I’m excited for you! And I have everything to make this. Must try tonight!
Get ready, you’re going to be OBSESSED with it! 🙂
Lizzy that soup looks delish and I can’t wait to make it! Thanks for all your wonderful recipes and posts; I enjoy them so much. You are amazing!
So happy to finally see you get this rolling. Happy everything will stay on this domain. =) XO
Yes, you convinced me!
Okay, you pulled me out of lurker status to say HOORAY! Finally someone posted a dinner recipe that I can actually MAKE with my level of grilled cheese/scrambled eggs/mac and cheese cooking skills! This looks delicious and I can’t wait to try it as the weather cools down here in Michigan. 🙂
Oh yay!! Kate I am so happy I can help you out! This really is a great meal too, anyone of any age will love it! You can also use chicken or ground turkey in place of the beef! (I would cook the chicken first and then shred it in after the zucchini)
This Taco Soup looks so fresh and healthy.. Your pic turned out great! I love the addition of zucchini that you included to make it a Lille different from the norm. I am looking forward to trying this weekend. Looks yummy!!
Kim
Looks and sounds very tasty! And I love the bowls you have the taco soup in – they are beautiful.
Lizzy I’m so happy for your new venture. I have no doubt in my mind that you will be just as successfull teaching us all about cooking as you have teaching us about cupcakes! My husband loves to cook and I’m the baker, so now we can both enjoy your blog! Happy cooking and looking forward to future posts!
I JUST made this & Oh. My. Goodness. It is delish!!! This recipe will Definitely stay in my cold weather recipe go-to box!! Thank you! It was so crazy easy to make!
Oh good! Yes, it’s super simple and amazing! It’s easy to make a big pot of it for guests or hungry boys too!
Because you know, all wives do is cook 😉
After cooking the ground beef do you drain the fat off or did you leave it in?
I left it in, there wasn’t much fat in mine! But feel free to do whatever you would like!
I made this recipe vegetarian style (omitted ground beef) and I found it to be quite tasty! Quick, easy and inexpensive.
Just made your Taco Soup: my variations: for the ground beef I used green onion venison sausage from our freezer, spicy enough to leave out the taco seasoning packet, diced orange Bell pepper, “Better than Bouillon” beef base–1 tsp. with 1c. boiling water, garlic chips, dried oregano, parsley, & basil, Fire roasted diced tomatoes. Delicious experience!
Plan to make super large batch for our golf social dinner very soon!
Hi Lizzy! Just wanted to let you know that I made the Taco Soup last night and it was killer good. Adding the “Add-ins” really made it fantastic! Thanks for the recipe. I’ll be using this one from now on.
I’m totally craving this soup right now! A friend made Taco Soup last night… but you’re right it just isn’t the same without all the good add-ins.
I have left overs for tonight….come on over! 😀
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