By Wednesday night the only two members of this household standing upright were me and Waylon, and Waylon was mostly lying down. There was a box of tissues next to the can opener on the peninsula, four labeled cups by the sink so nobody shared, and a pot of taco soup on the back burner for whoever felt like eating.
The flu came through our house in order, like a substitute calling roll. Jack on Sunday, Nora on Tuesday, two weeks after her twelfth birthday cake, Ryan on Wednesday, which cost him three shifts at the plant. I lasted until Friday morning and wrote half of this post from the couch. I'll leave the medical side to the pediatrician and the pharmacist, who were both very patient with us. This post is about the cooking, because somebody still has to feed the people who are hungry, and most days that week, that somebody had about half a brain to work with.
Taco soup is what I make when I can't think. It's one pot, a pound of ground beef and a row of pantry cans. You open things, you dump things, you stir. If you can work a can opener, you can make it.
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef (85/15)
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 packet (1 ounce) taco seasoning, or 2 tablespoons of your own mix
- 1 packet (1 ounce) dry ranch seasoning
- 1 can (15 ounces) pinto beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 can (15 ounces) black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 can (15 ounces) whole kernel corn, drained
- 2 cans (14.5 ounces each) plain diced tomatoes, with their juice
- 1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
- 2 cups beef broth or water
- For the table: shredded cheddar, sour cream, sliced green onions and Fritos or tortilla chips
I use plain diced tomatoes because Nora does not do heat. If your house likes it spicier, swap one can for the kind with green chiles, or do what Ryan does and add hot sauce to his own bowl.
How I make it
- Brown the ground beef and onion in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, about 8 minutes, breaking up the meat, until no pink is left. Spoon off the fat, leaving about a tablespoon in the pot.
- Sprinkle in the taco seasoning and ranch and stir for 1 minute, until it smells toasty.
- Add the beans, corn, tomatoes, tomato sauce and broth. Bring it to a boil, then turn it down to low and simmer 20 minutes, stirring now and then.
- It's done when it has thickened a little and everything is steaming hot all the way through. Taste it before you salt it; the seasoning packets bring a lot of salt with them.
Why stir the seasoning in the fat for a minute before the cans go in? A lot of the flavor in dried spices like cumin and chili powder dissolves in fat much better than in water. One minute in the hot beef fat wakes them up. Dump them straight into the liquid and the soup tastes flatter, and you'll find yourself adding more seasoning to make up for it.
The thing that went wrong this week was me. On Tuesday I set the pot to simmer, sat down on the couch next to Nora "for one minute" and woke up forty minutes later to a smell. The bottom had scorched. If that happens to you, don't stir and don't scrape. Pour the soup off the top into a clean pot and leave the burned layer behind. Stir it up and the whole pot tastes burned; leave it alone and you lose about a cup. We lost about a cup.
How it freezes
Taco soup freezes about as well as anything I make, which is why I doubled it on Thursday, when I could feel it coming for me next.
- Cool it fast. Divide the pot into shallow containers so it chills quickly, and get it into the fridge within two hours of cooking. A full, hot Dutch oven in the fridge stays warm in the middle for hours.
- Freeze it flat. I ladle 2 cups into each quart zip bag, press out the air, lay the bags flat on a sheet pan to freeze, then stand them up in the chest freezer like files. They keep their quality about three months.
- Toppings never go in the freezer. Cheese, sour cream and chips go on at the table.
- Reheat it all the way. Thaw a bag overnight in the fridge, or set it in a bowl of cold water for an hour, then bring it to a simmer until it's steaming throughout (165°F).
One batch makes about 12 cups. Ground beef was $5.79 a pound at Kroger this week, the cans came to about $7 and the two packets about $2.40, so the pot cost roughly $16 before toppings.
By Thursday, Jack was back to ranking things. He gave the taco soup a 7, then took it back and said it was a 9 "when you're sick," which is the most honest review this blog has gotten. Two bags are left in the freezer. I'm hoping we save them for an ordinary cold Tuesday.
