Instant Pot Taco Soup

I made this super simple taco soup with the kids. There's barely any work to it at all. I browned my meat separately but will not do that next time - I use a fairly lean meat so I might as well do it all the Instant Pot since it's so much easier. (But if you have a fattier meat you might want to strain off some of the fat.)

Feel free to add beans, chickpeas, whatever stuff you'd like - but my kids don't like it, won't eat it and thus we made this bare bones. For toppings, the kids used cheese and tortilla chips, but sour cream, tomatoes, cilantro, and avocado are also good options.

Instant Pot Taco Soup
serves 4-6

cooking oil
500 g minced beef
1 chopped onion
taco spice mix - you can use a ready-made one, or just add salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, a little chili, cayenne, cumin and coriander.
1 small can (about 200 g) corn
1 can - 400 g - crushed tomatoes
water - use your judgement to get this as soupy as you want. I used about 600 ml.

Put your IP on the sauté setting and add a little cooking oil. Brown the minced meet. Add the onion and fry for a few minutes. Press cancel.

Add the taco spice, corn, tomatoes and water. Seal and turn your IP to high pressure for 15 minutes. Do a manual release of the steam, and turn off the Instant Pot.

Chicken tortilla soup in crockpot

So, yet another recipe for chicken soup in crockpot. Nothing new, but this is mine. I prepared everything in the morning and then just let it cook all day. So comfortable. I always think I should use my crockpot more but I rarely get around to it. Do you have one? What’s your favorite meal to cook in it?

Chicken tortilla soup 

 1 yellow onion, diced
1 large carrot, grated
1 can of salsa (about 350 g)
2 jars of crushed tomatoes (each 400 g)
500 g boneless and skinless chicken thighs
cumin
chili powder
vegeta (or some other multi purpose spice)
One whole dried ancho chili

Toss everything in the crockpot. I happen to have a model that can fry, so I did pre-brown the onion a little bit, but no worries if you have a traditional crockpot. It doesn’t matter much. 

Add water - it should more or less cover the other ingredients. It’s soup, not stew. 

Cook for at least 6 hours on low. Before serving, fish out the ancho chili and discard. Also remove the chicken, shred using two forks, then add back to the pot. 

Serve with whatever toppings you want! Avocado, cheese, tortilla chips, some fresh tomatoes, sour cream, would all be very good. 

Mexican Lasagna

So, if you've made a whole crock-pot-ful of pulled pork or carnitas, you might want ideas for using it up? I know I often find mindself with leftovers, and I've stirred it into pasta, risotto and lately, this "kind-of-lasagna". You can totally make it vegetarian, adding veggies like zucchini and mushrooms in lieu of the meat, or use ground beef. Lamb, perhaps? I'm sure it'd all work very well. I was surprised at how the tortillas turned out very similar to pasta, once cooked - weird!

This keeps well in the freezer, and re-heats beautifully in the microwave.

Mexican Lasagna
serves 6

1 large yellow onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 chili, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp cooking oil
800 g (two tins) crushed tomatoes
200 ml water
3 tbsp spicy salsa
2 tbsp coriander stalks, finely chopped
200 g grated cheese, sharp (I used Västerbottensost)
8 wheat tortillas
600 g carnitas meat, or ground meat. (Or veggie substitute, see above)



Fry onions, pepper, chili and garlic in some oil. Add the tomatoes, water, salsa and coriander stalks. Cook on low heat for about 30 minutes.

Use a deep oven-proof dish, as you would for any lasagna. Layer tortillas, meat, tomato sauce and cheese. I started with sauce, and finished with sauce and cheese. I had three layers of tortillas.

Bake at 200°C for about 20 minutes. Let the lasagna set for 15 minutes before serving.

Serve with an avocado salsa, some sour cream and fresh coriander.

Recipe in Swedish:
Mexikansk lasagne

Crock-Pot Carnitas

I finally tried the crock-pot for the first time today! And what better to try than... carnitas! Or at least, slow-cooked pork. I call it carnitas because that's how we ate it - we fried it in a skillet after the liquid was absorbed, and ate it with tortillas, red onions, and cilantro. (And I admit, a dollop of créme fraîche on mine.) I didn't season the pork a whole lot in the pot, thinking I'd season it more at the final stage instead, and that's what I ended up doing. I have most of it stashed in the freezer, and will definitely use up some for tacos, and some for pulled pork sandwiches with lots of barbecue sauce.

Because, let me tell you, this was so good. So, so good. Amazing really. My regular carnitas are good, too, but this was so much more tender. It truly fell apart at the touch of a spoon. I could hardly believe it. In fact, for the first hour or so, I was really sceptical. Nothing at all happened, so I put my slow cooker on high for half an hour or so, until I could at least feel it getting a little warm, and then back to low for about eight hours.


Titus adored this, too.

So, a recipe? Hardly need it. Here's what I did. I took a big piece of pork - about two kilos of shoulder - and seasoned it with salt, cumin and ancho chili. Placed it in the slowcooked, and added the juice of one lime and one orange. I also added about 100 ml of water, which in retrospect probably wasn't necessary at all.

And that was that. I can't believe it's this easy to cook this good. It took five minutes of prepping time, and then five more minutes before serving. Anyone, anyone can do this.