NM-Style Taco Soup with Posole & Mayocoba Beans
Taco soup is like a chameleon — it blends into any season & can reflect multiple regions (based on seasonings). It’s perfect in winter, comforting and warm – and just a fitting for summer, spicy & satisfying. This taco soup recipe is inspired by my recent trip to NM. I picked up some of my favorite types of souvenirs: local ingredients and spices!
You can read about my finds here: “I Just Love Souvenirs!”
While in NM we ate out… A LOT ((which contributed to the need to shed my winter coat, hhaha…sniff-sniff)). Anyway, one thing I noticed, the food interestingly reflected the landscape: The first flavor my palate detected was bitter, followed by a touch of sweet and then and blast of crazy sweat inducing, fire-ball tonsil-throbbing, stomach churning heat.
The landscape is extreme, vast, rugged & unforgiving ((bitter, not angry just hard living conditions)), beautiful – amazingly, uniquely & stunningly gorgeous ((sweet)) and desert–miles and miles of desert, even when it is freezing cold it looks HOT…((hot–in case you missed the correlation hah!))…I can’t imagine what it feels like on August 3!
The local gentleman who sold me my spices also sold me some posole and gave me several recipe ideas ((bonus!!)). The primary tip: posole could be cooked just like beans…even with beans. I was immediately intrigued and have been looking for an opportunity to test out his suggestions.
Theory behind my NM soup:
- In order to bring out the bitter flavor-which is introduced by using several T of high quality chili powder ((enter heat)), it is important to limit the salt. Don’t remove salt all together, just use it sparingly. The best way to do this is wait until the very end of cooking to add salt.
- A hint of sweet cuts the initial bitterness and opens the palate up for a blast of heat – I simply added 1 t of sugar at the end of cooking. Posole also added an underlying sweetness to the soup.
- Now for the heat, there is NO way my kids & hubby will tolerate tonsil throbbing heat — I would just have to pick up Little Caesar’s. So I used mild chili powders – I was unfortunately unable to detect any heat. Gracie, on the other hand was sucking down the water. If you want to amp up the heat, just use medium or hot chili powder in place of the mild I used.
The canned ingredients are my classic taco soup additions. One more little tip: The refried beans act as a thickener to the soup ((I love chili-like taco soup much more than a broth-like taco soup)). If you don’t have salsa verde, your favorite tomato based salsa works great!
I hope the flavors of this soup transport your taste buds & your mind to the rugged beauty & splendor unique to ‘The Land of Enchantment’.
- 1 c posole
- 1-1/2 c mayocoba beans (or your favorite dried beans)
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 t canola oil
- 2-1/2 c beef broth
- additional water*
- 1 lb ground & browned beef (drained)
- 2 T dry ranch seasoning mix
- 1 T Hatch green chili powder (I used mild)
- 1 T Hatch red chili powder (I used mild)
- 2 t cumin
- 2 t garlic salt
- 1 T dried oregano
- 1-28 oz can crushed tomatoes (I prefer Cento)
- 1-7 oz can salsa verde (Herdez is the best)
- 1-16 oz can refried beans (fat free)
- 1-4 oz can diced green chills
- 2-16 oz cans green beans (undrained)
- 1 t sugar
- sea salt & fresh ground pepper to taste
- shredded sharp cheddar cheese for garnish
- Place the rinsed posole & mayocoba beans in the pressure cooker, add beef broth, garlic, bay leaves & oil. Fill the pressure cooker up with the recommended amount of water* (according to your pressure cooker user's guide) - I poured enough water to reach the 12 c mark.
- Set the pressure cooker to cook according to guide recommendations - I set mine to cook at high pressure, 55 minutes & natural pressure release.
- In a large soup pot, combine chili powders & cumin, toast spices over medium heat by stirring for 2 minutes. Add meat and remaining seasonings, stir to combine. Next, add all canned ingredients, stir until refried beans are completely incorporated and soup is at a low simmer.
- Cover soup & turn off heat until beans & posole are done.
- Once beans & posole are done cooking, remove bay leaves & garlic. Add beans & posole to the soup pot. Add as much or as little pressure cooker liquid to reach your preferred soup thickness. (I added about 2/3 of the liquid).
- Add sugar stir & add salt & pepper to taste. Garnish each serving with shredded cheese.
- Serves 12-15.