Taco Soup...

Convenience food.

We all like it, don't we?!

One of the things I try to always have on my shelf for fast grab on days when I'm doing school with my children, or busy gardening, or sewing is taco soup. This recipe came from my mother to me and then I tweeked it so much that now I call it mine. :-)

 

I do a 15 quart batch at a time and can it up, but if you don't want to do that, I have some notes for you at the end of this post. We enjoy ours with corn chips or rice and a sprinkling of cheddar.

 

God bless my Grandma for blessing me with this 20 qt stockpot

on my wedding day. It has seen many batches of

taco soup, ketchup and tomato juice.

 

 

 

I love the rich colors and thickness of this recipe.

It is comfort food on rainy days like today,

and on the snowy days of winter.

 

 

the recipe:

 

Into a large stockpot, place

3 large onions, diced (or 3 rounded T dried onions)

1 qt diced peppers

(my girls freeze them from my garden in summer)

3 qt whole kernel corn

3-4 lb ground beef or beef stew meat cubes, browned

6 qt beans

(I canned them last evening*; I use a combination; this time

it was 2 qu small red beans, 2 qu black beans and 2 qu pink beans)

6 qu crushed tomatoes or tomato juice

(sometimes I use a combination of these two)

5 rounded T taco seasoning

1 rounded T salt

1/2 T black pepper

1/2 c sugar

 

Heat through and then fill jars for canning.

Place lids and rings on jars.

 

 

 

Can pints at 15 lb pressure for 30 minutes.

Can quarts at 15 lb pressure for 40 minutes.

 

*I can my own beans because

1. it's much much more economical than buying them

2. it's easy and I can do other things while I wait for the canner to get finished

3. I know where my beans come from and what is in the jar.

More than I can say for most commercially processed beans.

Did you know most of them have sugar in them, among other things?!

4. I can reduce the amount of waste I send to the landfills!

 

To can, fill jars with

 1 1/3 c dried beans, 1 t salt (optional) 

fill with water to neck of jar.

 

Process at 15 lb pressure:

quarts = 50 minutes

pints=35 minutes

 

To make this soup recipe without canning, I figure the following as a rule of thumb

(the closest to a recipe you'll get from me!

My girls keep getting me to try and write my recipes down,

which is hard since I rarely use a recipe!)

 

For every qt of beans, use 1 qt tomato juice, 1/2 lb beef (optional),

2 c corn, 1 rounded T taco seasoning, 1 t salt, 1 onion, 1/2 c peppers,

1/2 t black pepper and a scant T sugar.

 

Simmer a good half hour and serve.