Soups On!

All week long I would come home from work and think gee, a good bowl of soup would taste good for dinner.  But it was always a little too late in the day to start a kettle of soup.  I've hardly made any soup this winter...it just hasn't felt cold enough to be a soup-kind-of day for the most part.

Today's recipe share is a recipe that I've looked at all week.  The photo of the soup looked so good

but the ingredients were a little weird.  I knew this would be one of those recipes that is going to be really really good.
 or really bad...

This taco soup was delightfully delicious.  So light, fresh and full of flavor.   So many of the recipes are a little bit too heavy and rich in the tomato for me.  This recipe definitely gets a smiley face,
a big smiley face!

Let's make some Taco Soup with Mojo Sauce, shall we?

 Brown 1 pound ground chuck; place in a strainer to drain excess fat off.

  Chop a 1/2 onion, 1/2 yellow pepper and 1/2 red bell pepper.  Place into same pan that hamburger was fried in, along with 2 tablespoons olive oil.

Cook for 5 minutes.

 Add cumin, chili powder, coriander, dried oregano and minced garlic.  

Cook 5 minutes more.

Bring hamburger back into pan; stir to mix.

Add a can diced tomatoes.

Add 1/2 can black beans, drained and rinsed.

Place mixture into a large soup kettle.  Add two cans of beef broth, plus 3 teaspoons beef bouillon and 1 cup corn.  Simmer on low for 1 hour.

Now comes the weird part to this soup,

to me anyway...

Mojo sauce?

I had never heard of it.

The ingredients seemed a little weird.

Honey, cinnamon, cilantro, cumin...

But trust me,

this is what made the soup

so flavorful and fresh! 

Pack fresh cilantro into a 1/2 cup measuring cup.  Place in a food processor.  Squeeze two small limes over cilantro.  Add 2 cloves of garlic, 1 1/2 teaspoon honey (yes, honey!), 1 1/2 teaspoon white wine vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, 1/4 tsp kosher salt and fresh black pepper to taste.  The recipe also called for a 1/4 tsp of cinnamon in the mojo sauce...I took a taste before adding the cinnamon

and decided it tasted delicious as is.  I chickened out, I didn't add the cinnamon...that sounded just a little bit too weird for me.

Place in a food processor and mince; adding 2 Tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil to sauce.

Garnish each serving of soup with 1 Tablespoon of the Mojo Sauce. 

Mmmmmm, this sauce is so good.  Do not skip this part of the recipe!

Add desired taco toppings to soup...

freshly grated cheddar jack cheese, dollop of sour cream,

avocado slices, shredded lettuce

and Mojo Sauce.

Serve with corn tortilla chips.

This recipe serves 4 people, can easily be doubled.

And as always...

a printable recipe card. 

Click on arrow.

Enjoy! Brenda