Taco Soup: The Ultimate Balance of Taste and Affordability
By David & Martha Cox 03/02/2010Yesterday, we talked about saving money by switching from carbonated soft drinks to sweet ice tea. Today we’re going to talk about another way you can save money: By cooking a very large, delicious meal for an amazing price. I’m talking about Taco Soup.
Taco soup is possibly the best example I have found so far of cooking great food on a shoestring budget. It’s a lot like well seasoned, watery chili, and rightly so; this soup would be a chili with one or two minor modifications. Those differences, however, are what set this taco soup apart.
Ingredients:
- 1 can of kidney beans (drained – meaning when you open the can, pour out the syrup the beans are floating in, but leave the beans in the can) ~ $1
- 1 can of whole kernel corn (drained) ~$0.80
- 1 can of hominy (drained) ~ $0.80
- 1 can of ranch style beans (un-drained) ~ $0.80
- 1 packet of ranch dressing mix ~ $0.75
- 1 packet of taco seasoning ~ $0.70
- 1 can of Rotel ~ $0.80
- 1 lb. of ground turkey ~ $2.00 (optional)
Altogether, we’re talking about roughly $8 to make enough soup to feed you and your family with servings to spare. If that sounds like a deal that’s hard to beat, wait until you see how easy it is to make it.
The Process:
- Defrost and brown your ground turkey in a saucepan over medium heat; use a little olive oil (or other vegetable oil) to help it brown without sticking to the pan (Note: You don’t need meat for this recipe to work; leaving the meat out makes for an excellent vegetarian taco soup, and will save you money).
- Empty all of your canned food into a large pot over medium high heat. Use one of the empty cans to add a little water, if the soup looks too dry.
- Stir in your taco seasoning and ranch dressing mix.
- After your ground turkey has browned, stir it into the soup as well.
- Stir the soup periodically to keep the bottom from burning.
- All we really need to do at this point is get the soup hot enough to eat; letting simmer for a while will extract a lot of flavor, but if you’re really hungry, warming it up until it’s hot enough for human consumption is the bare minimum here.
- Pull it off the heat, and serve!
This simple soup comes together in as little as half an hour, and goes great with cornbread, sour cream, and a little grated cheddar cheese.
This recipe should make up to about 8-10 servings, meaning that whether you’re cooking for 2 or 4, you will likely have leftovers–although not for long.
I can attest to the fact that this is a super delicious recipe. It is twice as delicious if you dump all the ingredients in a crockpot at the beginning of the day and let it simmer for several hours until you get home. This allows time for the spices and water to soak into the meat, making it tender and tasty.
Good advice, Eric. The longer it steeps and simmers, the more flavor you’re going to extract. That’s a good rule of thumb for a lot of meals.
[...] a pretty good balance of taste and cost. We’ve already covered a few recipes–like our Taco Soup and our Chili and Cornbread recipes. However, today we’re going to cover a tried and true [...]