Easy Taco Soup Recipe

I love everything about tacos. Mostly, the ease of eating a meal with my hands -we’re all kids at heart, right? This easy taco soup is the next best thing, everything you love about tacos, in a bowl!

It comes together in 30 minutes, and it’s loaded with all our favorite taco flavors.

Three things I love about taco soup:

• Everything we love in a taco by the spoonful.
• One of the simplest recipes to make.
• All the ingredients are already in my pantry.

How to Make Taco Soup

If you can open cans and stir stuff, you can make this taco soup. All joking aside, it’s a fool-proof recipe that’s a crowd pleaser and leftovers taste better the next day or two days later. Watch how easy it is to make in this recipe video

1. Brown the beef
Don’t have beef? Swap it for ground turkey, shredded chicken meat from last night’s roasted chicken, or 2 cans of beans- it’s totally cool to improvise here. 

2. Add the taco seasoning
Cumin, cayenne pepper, and paprika amp the flavor of this soup, it’s my version of aromatherapy. This is my homemade taco seasoning recipe, but the store-bought packets will work just fine. 

3. Add the remaining ingredients
As soon as the beef is done, add the black beans, corn, salsa, broth. Stir it and simmer until thickened, and the veggies are tender. 

4. Serve up!
All that’s left is to grab the largest bowl you’ve got, fill it with soup, load on the toppings, and enjoy!

Ingredients

Go take a look in your pantry what do you see? Most likely there are a couple of cans of corn, black beans, broth, a lonely jar of salsa, and diced tomatoes. How about the freezer? Yup, just what I thought, that pound of ground beef you brought for tacos is still there.

But the good news is you have everything you need to make this taco soup!

I’ll put it in list form so you can take a picture with your phone.

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 2 tablespoons taco seasoning
• 15-ounce can corn, drained or
• 1 ½ cups frozen, thawed 
• 4-ounce can green chilis, drained
• 12-ounce jar salsa
• 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 4 cups (32oz) beef broth

What to put on top

Taco soup is best enjoyed dressed like a beef taco; cheese, sour cream, avocado- the works! Bonus points if you add tortilla chips, they soak up all that taco infused broth. EPIC.

My family enjoys it set up as a build-your-own-bowl dinner, with all the toppings like sour cream, cheese, tortilla chips set out so they can top their soup to their liking.

Making it healthier

Thanks to simple pantry staples like beans, corn, and tomatoes, this recipe is full of protein and fiber. If you want to cut down on the fat, use lean ground beef or swap it for ground turkey or diced chicken breast.

This is one recipe my entire family can agree on, which doesn’t happen all the time. If you want to make it low-carb, swap the black beans and corn for diced zucchini and carrots, it will similar one of my most popular recipes, the All Meat & Veggie Chili but taco-fied.

How to Freeze This Soup

Taco soup tastes even better the next day AND if freezes beautifully! Keep it on hand for a quick lunch idea you can quickly reheat and pack into thermoses. 

Everything you need to know about freezing this recipe and all other soups, right below: 

1. Allow the soup to cool down to room temperature
2. Pack it into large, freezer-safe zip bags.
3. Label zip bags with the date and reheating instructions. 
4. Place bags on a large sheet pan and transfer to the freezer for 2 hours. 
5. Once frozen, remove them from the sheet pan, and store for up to 2-3 months. 

Other cooking options

You’ll be pleased to know this taco soup is also slow-cooker friendly. Simply brown the beef then add it to the slow cooker along with all the other ingredients. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours or high for 2. Easy, peasy, and you have homemade soup with only 10 minutes of kitchen duty.

More Easy Soup Recipes

When you need a hot bowl of healthy comfort food, soup is the way to go! They’re easy to make, and you can add more veggies and ingredients for extra nutrition. If you’re a soup fan, you’ll also love these healthy recipes: 

• Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup
• Chicken Pot Pie Soup
• Easy Chicken Stew
• Easy Tortellini Soup
• Slow Cooker Lasagna Soup
• Healthy Enchilada Soup
• Butternut Squash Soup
• Paleo Chicken and Veggie Chili 
• Chili Mac– technically not soup, but you’ve got to try it!