Tasty Taco Soup — The Slow Cooker Sunday

Cody called collect Saturday night just before nine, which is the unit’s evening phone window and the only time he can get the line, and Mama and I both took the call — her on the kitchen wall receiver, me on the cordless second handset I keep on my dresser for exactly this reason. He sounded steady. He sounded like he’d slept the night before, which is something you can hear in his voice when it’s true and you can hear in a different way when it isn’t. He said his caseworker had given him paperwork on Friday about a community-college culinary program he’d be eligible for after release — not before, he was clear about that, no overlapping enrollment with the remainder of his sentence — but after. He’d been thinking about it. He said being on the kitchen line at the unit had taught him he wasn’t bad at it. He said the head cook there, a man named Rufus, had told him he had “hands that don’t panic on a flat-top,” which is apparently the highest compliment Rufus gives anybody.

Mama didn’t say anything for what felt like fifteen seconds and I could see her through the kitchen doorway holding the receiver tight against her ear with the cord wrapped twice around her wrist the way she does when she’s steadying herself. Then she said, “Whatever you want to do, baby, we’ll help you do it.” She said it in the voice she uses for me when I tell her something she’s been hoping I would say since I was little. Cody got quiet on the other end. The line beeped at the four-minute mark, which is the warning that the call is going to cut at five, and we all knew the rule. He told me he’d gotten my last three letters. He told Mama he loved her. The line cut.

I sat at the kitchen table after she went to bed and I thought about the difference between the brother who’d gotten arrested in May of last year and the brother who’d just told us, on a four-minute collect line, that he wanted to go to culinary school. They are not the same brother. The unit has done something to him that nobody on the outside expected, and one of the somethings it’s done is given him eight months on a kitchen line where he had to actually pay attention because there was nowhere else to put his attention.

Sunday I made taco soup in the slow cooker — ground beef, two cans of black beans, one of pinto, a can of corn, two cans of diced tomatoes, taco seasoning, a quart of beef broth, eight hours on low — because Cody’s phone call had made me want to feed somebody and Mama was going straight from a Saturday close to a Sunday open with about five hours of sleep between, and I wanted dinner sitting on the stove waiting when she walked in the door. The soup is one of those recipes where the ratio of spice to bean to meat to corn matters more than the actual measurements you write down; I add a fourth can of beans some weeks if money is tight and the meat ratio needs to drop, drop a can of corn if Mama’s tired of corn, swap in chorizo if it’s on sale. This week I swapped in half a pound of chorizo because IGA had it at three-something for a pound on the manager’s yellow tag, and the flavor it added — that smoky, paprika-heavy, fat-rendered bottom note that ground beef alone never has — was worth more than the dollar I saved.

Mama walked in Sunday at four-fifteen, lifted the lid, and didn’t say anything, just dipped a spoon in for a taste straight out of the cooker, and nodded. That’s a five-star review from her. She ate two bowls and took a third in a Mason jar to work for Monday lunch.

Wednesday I read the first half of my finished Cody piece aloud to the writing program. Eight pages. Twenty-two minutes of reading. Marcus didn’t take notes the entire time, which I learned later means he was listening too hard to write. When I finished, the room was quiet for what felt like ten full seconds. Then Antonio — who barely speaks in workshop, who reads his own pieces in a near-whisper — said, “Damn, Kaylee.” Iris said, “Don’t change a word.” Marcus told me to read the second half next Wednesday. I drove home and Mama asked how it went and I said it went the way I’d hoped, and I cried in the shower for fifteen minutes for reasons I couldn’t fully name.

Eight hours on low, taste before you serve, salt last. Here’s the full pot.

Tasty Taco Soup

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 30 min | Total Time: 40 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 packet (1 oz) taco seasoning
• 1 packet (1 oz) ranch dressing mix
• 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 can (10 oz) diced tomatoes with green chiles, undrained
• 1 can (15 oz) kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can (15 oz) whole kernel corn, drained
• 2 cups beef broth
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• Optional toppings: shredded cheddar, sour cream, tortilla chips, sliced green onions

Instructions

1. Brown the beef. In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat, cook the ground beef and diced onion together, breaking the meat up as it cooks, until no pink remains, about 7–8 minutes. Drain excess fat.
2. Add garlic and seasoning. Stir in the minced garlic, taco seasoning, and ranch dressing mix. Cook for 1 minute until fragrant.
3. Add the remaining ingredients. Pour in both cans of diced tomatoes, kidney beans, black beans, corn, and beef broth. Stir everything together to combine.
4. Simmer. Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Simmer uncovered for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the flavors meld and the soup thickens slightly. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed.
5. Serve. Ladle into bowls and top with shredded cheddar, sour cream, tortilla chips, or whatever you have on hand.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 310 | Protein: 22g | Fat: 11g | Carbs: 30g | Fiber: 8g | Sodium: 870mg