Kitchen Sink Mexican Soup

There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Summer zucchini is plentiful and wasting food is not an option. Several sandwich bags full of diced tomatoes have been frozen, couple dozen have been given to friends, and lots have been turned into summer smoothies. Still, there are zucchini in the fridge and more in the garden. So even though is full on sweltering summer heat, a Kitchen Sink Mexican Soup was made for dinner because zucchini and Mexican soup go hand in hand.

Ingredients:

4 large carrots, sliced

3 ribs celery with leaves, sliced

1/2 yellow onion, diced

1 T butter

32 oz broth

28 oz tomato juice (leftover from whole tomatoes used to make salsa)

2 cubes pollo de Tomate

1 T taco seasoning

1 T chili powder

1 T comino

1 T minced garlic

1 large handful cilantro, chopped

28oz white hominy with juice

2 cups zucchini, diced

3 small potatoes, diced

Salt & Pepper

Instructions:

Sauté carrots, celery, onions in one tablespoon butter. Add remaining ingredients and cook until veggies are tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Scaled for Likability: Great

Kitchen sink meals are so good. They combine all your favorite flavors into one dish and are a great way to use up leftover odds and ends from the fridge. To this pot of soup spanish rice was served on the side (or in if you were me and not the kid counterpart) along with warmed flour tortillas. Cheese could have been added or tortilla chips instead of flour tortillas but those toppings are too close to Tortilla Soup. Leftover chicken, finely diced pieces of pork, or taco meat itself would have been good, too.

The key to this meal is fresh ingredients. Frozen corn would be an exception but all other veggies need to be fresh. Hominy juice can be omitted if the flavor of the juice is too strong. White hominy was used but yellow would have been equally as good. Its soup, play with it, love it, eat it.

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