It’s Thursday which means I am beginning to think about meals for the weekend. A practice I began while on Whole30®, I like to plan soup for either Thursday or Friday so that we can have quick leftovers for the weekend. Even though it’s supposed to be a fairly nice weekend with slightly warmer temps, it’s still nice to have soup to warm up with when running in and out of the house with the weekend’s activities. And this weekend we are exceptionally busy, so I’ll prep the soup tomorrow morning when I get home from work so it slow cooks all day in the crock pot. I usually have all the ingredients for this Pumpkin Taco Soup on hand, so it’s fairly quick and easy to put together…that is if I remember to get the meat out of the freezer early enough (which I have already done this time).
This is one of those soups that you can really add anything that you like on your tacos to, and it will taste good. I am sharing the Whole30® compliant version that I adapted from my original Taco Soup recipe, as my original recipe calls for tomato soup (in place of chicken broth), hominy, corn, & black beans. You obviously notice from the title that it has pumpkin in it; don’t worry, you can’t taste it. It just makes it a little creamier and adds more veggies to it–no one will ever know it has pumpkin in it.
You will need to use either pre-packaged taco seasoning and dry ranch seasoning, or you can easily make your own to have on hand for other meals as well.
Homemade Taco Seasoning Mix
*I put all of these ingredients in a pint jar then just shake it up to mix.
1/4 C. plus 1 Tbsp. Chili Powder
1 1/4 tsp. Garlic Powder
1 1/4 tsp. Onion Powder
1 1/4 tsp. Crushed Red Pepper Flakes (optional)
1 1/4 tsp. Dried Oregano
2 1/2 tsp. Paprika
2 Tbsp. plus 1 1/2 tsp. Ground Cumin
1/2 – 1 Tbsp. Sea Salt
1/2 – 1 Tbsp. Black Pepper
Homemade Ranch Seasoning Mix
¼ C Black Pepper
1 ½ C. Parsley Flakes
½ C. Garlic Salt
2 Tbsp Kosher Salt
¼ C. Granulated Garlic
¾ C. Granulated Onion
2 Tbsp Dill Weed
- 1 lb ground beef, pork or turkey
- 2 cans tomatoes w/ green chilies (Rotel)
- 1 28 oz can fire roasted tomatoes
- 1 onion chopped
- 1-2 cloves garlic
- 1 can diced green chilies
- 3-4 cups bone, chicken, or vegetable broth
- 1 red pepper diced
- 1 green pepper diced
- 1 can pumpkin
- 2 tbsp homemade taco seasoning mix
- 3 tbsp homemade ranch seasoning mix
- lime juice to taste
- 1/4 cup cilantro chopped, plus more for garnish
- avocado for garnish
- Brown ground beef and with onion. When meat is cooked, add taco seasoning directly to ground beef and mix thoroughly. Another option is to add the taco seasoning directly to the soup when you add the ranch seasoning (see next step).
- Place browned beef and all the rest of the ingredients into the crock pot, adding the seasonings last. Cook on high 3-4 hours or low for 6-8 hours.