Thank you!

I generally use crushed tomatoes in soups/chilis vs tomato sauce. Canned tomato sauce to me has an odd taste, and I like the thickness that the crushed tomatoes have.

The best tortilla soup:

Thank you!

AmyinOwasso,

I have recently discovered a way to improve my quick bread (cornbread). I grind beans or southern peas into flour and add it to my cornbread batter.

It works well for making cream of whatever soup.

It can be used as a thickener. Protein, dietary fiber and tastes good too.

Johnny

Hmmm, Johnny, I have issues with dairy so non dairy cream soup would be fantastic!

The Taco Soup recipe I use makes 10-12 servings (or more) and sometimes I double it if I am preparing it for a bunch of hungry firefighters. I usually make it in a big stock pot, but you can make it in a crock pot if your crock pot is large enough (my largest crock pot can hold a single batch of this recipe but my smaller one cannot, and if I double it, I have to cook it in a large stock pot on the stove). This one gets rave reviews whenever I make it and it often is my go-to recipe when I'm cooking food to take to a bereaved family. I think the one thing that makes this Taco Soup more flavorful than any other taco soup recipe I've ever used is the packet of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix.

Paula Deen's Taco Soup Recipe

For chicken tortilla soup, I don't usually use a recipe, although I am sure that the first time I made it, I did use a recipe. Since then, I just wing it and vary how I make it depending on what sort of tomatoes and peppers I have on hand. Since I am a "pinch of this" and a "handful of that" type cook, it can be hard to translate that sort of cooking style into a recipe unless I were to go into the kitchen right now, whip up a batch and measure everything precisely as I did it. However, I looked online to find a recipe that is most like the one I use and I found the one from Rick Bayless. This one is so similar to what I do that I wonder if the first recipe I tried was indeed his. The only thing I do differently from the way he does it (and his way is superior, of course, as it gives you a smoother soup) is that I just throw everything in the pot and cook it. I don't take the time to puree any of it in a food processor or blender. So, here's his recipe:

Rick Bayless' Recipe for Chicken Tortilla Soup

Do you use epazote? I heard it was one of those acquired tastes...

I don't use epazote but since Tim loves cilantro I use it instead. I have to be the one adding the cilantro because if I add it, I'll add a couple of tablespoons of cilantro, finely chopped in my herb mill. If Tim were to add the cilantro, he'd add two bunches and he'd loosely chop it into big pieces the size of nickles and quarters. He adds too much cilantro to everything he cooks, so we have to go into the kitchen when he's cooking and either hide the cilantro or supervise him closely. Otherwise, everything he makes just tastes like cilantro.

LOL, Ron likes cilantro, too. Don't let Tim try papalo, it is much stronger, but a good substitute for cilantro in hot weather.

I love cilantro! I will chop a 1/4-1/3 bunch and add to my burger instead of lettuce!

Amy, I often grow both papalo and culantro as hot weather substitutes for cilantro just so I won't have to buy cilantro all summer long for Tim.

nowyousedum, I'll have to suggest to Tim that he try cilantro on his hamburger. I'm sure he'd love it that way. He'd probably put cilantro on ice cream if he thought of it, but I'm not going to suggest he ruin a perfectly good bowl of Blue Bell Ice Cream by sprinkling cilantro on the top.

Dawn

I've been looking at culantro, too, for next year. Sadly mone of my cilantro germinated for fall.

If I broadcast cilantro seeds on top of the soil in fall, I may not get them to germinate in the fall, but they'll pop up really early in spring or sometimes even in late winter. So, maybe the cilantro seeds you sowed will give you plants somewhere down the road. I generally have them pop up in my compost pile around February. The heat from the pile might be making them germinate a little early, but once they're growing they tend to survive the cold nights.