Taco Soup (jar mix)

I'm so excited to share with you a different style of pantry-friendly, shelf stable meals and goodies for the next several months!  These are commonly known as jar meals or meals in a jar.

From now through December, my monthly blog post will follow this same great theme:  jar mixes!  If you've never heard of jar mixes, they are both tasty and fun.  Dry ingredients are layered in a quart jar and then mixed with wet ingredients and cooked.  There are jar mixes for bread, soup, meals, cookie mixes, and more.  

There are two big reasons I love jar mixes.

First, you can create them similar to the "cook once a month" method of meal planning and freezing meals.  The idea there is to dedicate one whole day to assembling many meals, then freezing them for use all month long.  The idea here with jar meals is to spend a little time assembling several jars that you can just keep on hand for months, using them whenever you're in a pinch.  

Second, these make the best gifts!  I love giving these out at Christmastime when people are often inundated with treats.  For soups and meals, it provides a ready-made meal at a busy time of year.  For something like cookie mixes, it provides a treat that doesn't have to be eaten right away--the recipient can whip it up at the end of January or the middle of March instead.

IMPORTANT NOTES ABOUT THIS JAR MIX:  

• Jar mixes should be used within about a year unless you seal them (like with a FoodSaver and the jar attachment) or use oxygen absorbers.  
• You can purchase many of the ingredients in this Taco Soup at your local grocery store.  
• You can purchase the dehydrated (or freeze-dried) ingredients at Thrive Life (where I get a little discount if you do), or you can dry them yourself using a food dehydrator (which is what I did for this recipe).  That link is to the dehydrator I use--I love it, but I know there are fancier ones out there, too.  Be aware that the beans in this recipe must be cooked first and then dehydrated; do not use uncooked beans.  Thrive Life calls these "quick beans."  I just cooked and then dehydrated the beans myself, but you could drain and rinse a can of beans, then dehydrate them.  To dehydrate the corn myself, I literally just drained a can of corn then put it in the Food Saver dehydrator.  Soooo easy.
• If you decide to gift this the way I have pictured, use a piece of fabric about 6"x6".
• Last note:  You  may notice that the order in which I originally layered this Taco Soup jar mix as shown in the photo differs from the directions shown below.  That's because the tomato powder hardens like nobody's business when it's all together like that.  (I had to use a sharp knife to cut it in pieces and get it out--and it had only been in the jar a few days.)  So definitely follow the directions for jar mix assembly, not the photo.

TACO SOUP

PREP TIME (making the jar mix):  10 minutes
COOK TIME:  25 minutes

JAR MIX INGREDIENTS

In a wide-mouth quart jar, layer in order, tamping down to help the ingredients settle (as needed):

• 1/2 c. rice
• 1 c. dehydrated corn
• 1/2 c. dried onion 
• 1  1/2 c. quick beans (meaning: cooked then dehydrated or freeze-dried), either black or pinto or half & half (see notes above)
• 1/2 c. tomato powder (available here and here)
• 1 Tbsp. taco seasoning
• 1 Tbsp. dried cilantro
• 2 tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• 1 tsp salt

note: directions shown here are incorrect; consult the directions below

COOKING DIRECTIONS

Attach to the jar using a sticker or tag:

Place contents of jar in a large soup pot with 12 c. water.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium.  Cover and simmer 20 minutes or until beans, corn, and rice are tender.

Try this recipe, then comment and let me know how you like it!  And Pin it to Pinterest to save and share using the image below.

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