The Cookbook Experiment: Taco Soup

Tonight's cookbook experiment is another excellent recipe by Sharon Giambrone. I love Sharon and I love her recipes too. My family loves anything to do with tacos and I thought I would give this one a try. It sure is easier than trying to wrangle all the ingredients together for regular tacos and tonight after a rough day at work and a rough time at physical therapy I needed easy.

Taco Soup by Sharon Giambrone

(2) pounds ground beef
(1) onion, chopped
(3) cans mild Rotel
(1) can Shoe-peg corn
(1) can black beans
(1) can kidney beans
(1) can pinto beans
(1) package dry ranch dressing
(1) package dry taco seasoning
(1) cup water

Brown ground beef and onions, drain. Add other ingredients and simmer at least 2 hours. Layer in bowl: Fritos or other corn chips, soup, cheese and sour cream.

My take-a-ways for this recipe:

• I drained the black beans and rinsed them.
• I had a green pepper I needed to use before it went bad so I chopped it and added it at the same time.
• I also had some bacon leftover (how did that happen in this household?) so I added that in. It was actually not a good idea because it got soggy. I should have saved it for the top as a garnish.
• Before I added any of the cans and after I drained the hamburger meat, I added the taco and ranch seasoning so that it could mix well and would not be lumpy in any of the juice/water.
• This was an excellent recipe. My whole family (minus the one vegetarian) loved it. I will definitely make it again.  Thanks Sharon!