Chipotle Beef Soup

In September, 2023, I wrote this blog post about canning this Chipotle Beef Soup (link to recipe is included). I followed the recipe pretty much exactly (“exactly” isn’t always *exactly* for me) except I may have double quadrupled the recipe because, according to the blog post, I ended up with 12 quarts and the recipe was supposed to make 2 pints. In February, I made 10 more quarts. Last week, I reached into the canning pantry for a jar of the Chipotle Beef Soup and realized, once that jar was gone, I would have only one jar left. That’s a lot of Chipotle Beef Soup but we love it and I do share my jars of soup with Chad and his family.

The second batch of soup I made, I used ground beef instead of chopped roast and I liked the ground beef better.

Yesterday I used 8 pounds of ground beef and made 10 more quarts. Even though we eat more soup in the winter than in the summer, we don’t mind popping open a jar of yummy soup on those days when I’ve worked in the garden and am too tired to cook. My goal is to have enough soup in jars by mid-September to get us through the winter. Both of us love soup and sandwiches, or maybe a soup and salad if I can keep lettuce growing in the basement.

For the Chipotle Beef Soup, we love it best with a pint of drained hominy added to 1 quart of the canned soup. So, last night I started a batch of hominy. We only have three pints of hominy left and, in my opinion, the added hominy really makes this soup great. There are several hominy dishes we like. I’m soaking yellow corn tonight and tomorrow, after I get that all canned, I’ll put white hominy on to soak and get it canned on Friday.