Super Easy Mexican Pulled Pork Soup

I'm all about keeping my meals as simple to make as possible without sacrificing flavor and that "home-cooked" quality...in other words, we don't do microwave meals.  

   

One of my tricks to being able to throw together a great tasting meal in just a few minutes is that when we cook meat, we always make more than we can eat at one meal, and I freeze a portion or two for later use.  These frozen meats work well in pasta dishes, fried rice, and my favorite-soups.

Smoked Pulled Pork from the freezer

This Mexican soup was inspired by the smoked pulled-pork that I took out of the freezer yesterday.  I also had some cilantro still in the fridge from the guacamole I made a couple of days ago, and I have all of these fresh goodies from the garden...onions, garlic, a couple of different kinds of peppers, and corn.  All are ingredients that are widely used in Mexican cooking.

I generally don't use recipes, as I've cooked for so many years, it's just an intuitive process at this point, but I can tell you in general terms how to make the soup.  

First, I heat up my dutch oven over a medium flame for a couple of minutes, then I add some *olive oil.  While my pan is heating, I diced my onion, garlic, and peppers (green bell and jalapeno) and cut the corn kernels from the fresh corn.  When the oil was hot, I threw all of these fresh vegetables into the pot to saute, stirring them around frequently, but letting them caramelize a bit.  

I added some seasoning to the vegetables as they cooked - a little (about 1/2 teaspoon of each of these) Grill Mates Chipotle & Roasted Garlic seasoning, Grill Mates Montreal Steak seasoning, and some Chili Seasoning Mix.  Then I added some chopped, fresh oregano from my herb garden outside.  I let this all cook for a few minutes. 

A side benefit to good home cooking is the house smells AMAZING.  My husband just said for the millionth time, "There's not anything better than walking into the house and smelling fresh onions, garlic and peppers cooking in whatever it is you're making."

While the vegetables are still cooking over a medium flame, I open a can of black beans and rinse them to remove the excess salt.  Once they're rinsed, I add them to the pot and give it a good stir.

While the vegetables were cooking, I microwaved a cup of water with two **Knorr Chicken Bullion cubes.  Once dissolved, and immediately after adding the beans, I add this to the soup and deglaze the bottom of the pan.  You should hear lots of sizzling when you pour this in...that's the deglazing process separating all those little bits of caramelized goodness from the bottom of the pan.  I add three more cups of water once the deglazing is finished.

Lastly, I add shredded pork.  Let it heat for a couple of minutes to ensure the pork is hot.

THAT'S IT!  The soup is ready to serve!

The entire process actually takes about ten to fifteen minutes, and I have a great tasting meal, and that's because the meat was already cooked!

I like to add a garnish or two to the top of the soup once it's served.  That can be any number of things to include:  grated cheese(s), cilantro, a dollop of sour cream, corn chips, or crushed tortilla chips.  A squeeze of lime juice would also taste great.  Just use your imagination, but plan in advance, because you'll want to have the garnishes ready to go as soon as the soup hits the table.  Think about not only taste but texture too.  This is a great opportunity to add a little crunch to the top.

Put the tortilla chips in a food storage bag, seal,
and pound a few times with a heavy spoon to crush.

In my case today, I chose crushed blue corn tortilla chips, mainly because I had a bag already open that we used when we had the guacamole a couple of days ago, and the coarsely chopped cilantro.

Now, it's time to eat!

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*I love to add olive oil to EVERYTHING if I can get away with it, as it adds to the health aspect of the meal.  Did you know that olive oil binds to the bad oils in your body and helps to remove them?  

**Knorr Chicken Bullion (or ANY chicken bullion) is high in sodium, so if you're on a lower sodium diet, be aware and choose a lower sodium product.