Thanksgiving is over. I am so full from the last few days that the idea of sitting down to an actual meal is somewhat overwhelming. Add to that, at 5 1/2 months pregnant the nausea is still hanging around, making the idea of me actually making dinner also overwhelming.
My dinners lately have been things I can take out of the freezer and quickly cook (perogies), things I can put in a pan and quickly cook (grilled cheese), things I can put in a casserole dish and shove in the oven while I go nap (any type of pasta smothered in sauce and topped with cheese), and anything that my husband makes for me (a can of soup).
I decided today that I was going to pull out my slow cooker and try some soup that I can easily reheat during the week. I also wanted to try and clean out some of the things in the fridge that were going to be tossed out if they didn’t get used up soon.
The end result was my version of taco soup (or tortilla soup, since you can add the crunched up taco chips before eating it)
What you will need:
1 can of black beans rinsed and drained (I used part of a leftover can of black beans from quesadilla night a few nights back)
1 can of kidney beans rinsed and drained
1 each green and red pepper diced medium (or small if you want it less chunky)
1 medium onion diced medium (I used leftover peppers and onions from the quesadilla night)
1 regular can of diced tomatoes and its juice
1 can of tomatoes with chilies and its juice
1 can of corn, drained
1 package of taco seasoning
1 package of powdered ranch salad dressing mix (I know, it sounds totally out to lunch, but don’t leave it out. I promise it won’t taste bad)
2 cups of vegetable broth, or McCormack’s vegetarian chicken broth
What you do:
Dump everything into the slow cooker, turn it on low and forget about it for 9 hours. Or, turn it on high and leave it for 6 hours. I try and stir mine every few hours, but if its on low you probably don’t have to. (But it is a good excuse to taste it!)
Make sure not to drain the tomatoes. You don’t have to drain the corn, but I think corn juice is yucky so I drained mine. Once the soup is cooked I pureed about a cup of it in a blender, just to thicken it up, but you don’t have to do this. You can add cheese and sour cream or avocado as a garnish in addition to the crunched up taco chips. All are tasty.
Note: This soup does have a bit of a kick to it. I didn’t realize that before I added a few slices of jalapeno pepper to the pot, and then spent an hour trying to find them and fish them out. If you find it’s too spicy, add 1 tbsp brown sugar and 1 tsp soy sauce to the soup, it will take away some of the spicy. I also added the juice of half a lime.
This makes a pretty big batch of soup, but the nice thing is that you can make it a day in advance, throw the slow cooker dish in the fridge, pull it out the next day, put it back in the slow cooker and turn it on, and your house will smell amazing AND you will have a tasty dinner for when you come home from work!
Vancouver Island Vegetarian 