A Deliciously Tasty 7 Can Taco Soup Recipe
If you want to enjoy the flavors of tacos, but also want a soup to beat the cooling temperatures, then a tasty 7 can taco soup recipe should be added into your rotation for meals. This recipe is packed full of flavor and is super easy to make, only taking a half hour to make. It can easily be doubled for larger families and is awesome for meal prepping for the week.
Where Did 7 Can Taco Soup Come From?
While this dish doesn’t have a long historical line in the South, it was generated from the pantries of families looking to make something quick for their family with what they had and allow it to taste good. 7 can taco soup combines canned veggies and beans, fresh ground meat, and a few seasonings to elevate the flavor.
Gather Your Ingredients
Before you build your shopping list from the ingredients below, take a look in your own pantry to see how much of this you already have in your home.
- Two cans of Rotel or diced tomatoes
- Two cans of chili beans
- Two cans of corn
- One can of diced green chilis
- Two cups of beef broth
- 1/4 cup of ranch dressing mix
- One pound of ground beef
- One pack of taco seasoning mix
- Shredded cheese
- Sour cream
- Hot sauce
Substitutions are Allowed
If you’re not a fan of all the spice that comes from two cans of Rotel tomatoes, you can use plain diced tomatoes in your soup. They will work just as well and absorb the taco seasoning and ranch flavor later.
This is also true for beans. You can sub them out for kidney beans, black beans, or even omit beans if you are trying to reduce the carb intake. Just add an extra can of tomatoes and corn in its place.
If you are worried about adding beef broth to the soup due to salt content, you can easily replace this with water. For those who need lower sodium, this is the best option because the cans of veggies and beans will have their own share of salt to add to the soup.
You can even add more cans. While this is called 7 can taco soup, if you want to add one or two extra cans to the soup of your favorite veggies, by all means, dump it in the pot. This is a very versatile dish and can be made your own.
If you want to opt for a different meat instead of ground beef, you can use ground chicken or turkey in its place.
There are some who enjoy adding one more ingredient, and that is rice to the soup. Often times cooking up taco rice or cilantro lime rice and adding it will give another layer of flavor and heartiness to the soup.
Building Your Soup
Now that you have your ingredients together, it is time to build your soup.
1. Brown your meat in a skillet.
Whether you opted for ground beef or another protein, it needs to brown and cook in a skillet first before being added to the soup. Turn your burner onto medium-high heat and break the meat up with a spatula so that it cooks evenly.
Once this meat is cooked through, you need to drain out any excess fat. Once drained, you will want to add a packet of taco seasoning, a quarter cup of water, turn your burner down to a simmer, and cover for the next couple of minutes
2. Drain Your Beans
Unless you opted for chili beans in a sauce, you need to drain them first under cold water to remove that excess salt. Using a colander, you can pour your bean cans in so that the water and juice from the can drains down the sink and then run cold water around the beans. Use your hands to sift through the beans and make sure that you are washing each bean.
3. Get Your Soup Pot Ready
Go ahead and pull out your soup pot onto another burner and turn it to medium. You can add in the cans of corn, tomatoes and chilies directly into the pot after they have been opened. Once you have cleaned your beans, go ahead and add them to the pot, as well.
4. Add the Meat
Go back to your meat on the other burner and remove the cover. Give it a quick stir and make sure that the taco seasoning has blended. You can add the meat to the soup pot at this time.
5. Bring it all Together
Once the meat is added to the soup pot, add in your ranch seasonings, and either water or broth to the soup. Give it a good mix and let it reach a boiling temperature.
6. Simmer and Serve
Once your soup starts boiling, it is time to turn it to a simmer for the next 15 minutes or so and let the flavors marry each other. The veggies will cook down to be more tender, but not so tender that they are mushy.
After 15 minutes, you can ladle out the soup into bowls and serve to your guests.
Add Your Favorite Toppings
Taco soup can have a lot of different toppings for guests to enjoy. Make sure you have soup shredded cheese available, sour cream, and even hot sauce so that your guests can embellish this flavor and make this soup their own. Some tortilla strips will also add that crunch texture that you may be looking for in this soup.
Store Your Soup
Should you happen to have any leftovers of this delicious soup, make sure you let it cool completely before putting it in the fridge. Once refrigerated, it is good for the next three days. If you want it to last a little longer, make sure you put it in some freezer safe bags instead, and store it in your freezer where you can pull it out later. This soup can last up to six months safely in your freezer.
