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The other day it was a bit chilly, and I had a head cold. I was craving something warm and thick, but I didn’t feel well, so I didn’t want to spend much time cooking. A few days before, I’d made homemade enchilada sauce, and that great Mexican flavor was calling me. But I couldn’t really just make a bowl of enchilada sauce and eat it straight.
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Then the idea of making an enchilada soup hit me. I love the flavors in Mexican food…chilies, cumin, garlic, peppers, beans, corn. Yum! I had most of those flavors in freeze dried format. What if I put all those flavors into a soup? I tried it and LOVED the result. I’ve made a big batch of this soup each week since and eat it for lunch (with a glass of Peach Drink) almost every day. The best part about it is how little prep time it takes.  Five minutes prep.  Ten minutes simmer. Seriously.
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Gather your ingredients. Feel free to adjust amounts slightly depending on what you like. Less salt or a few more chilies…it’s up to you!
Add water to your pot over high heat. Whisk in tomato powder, garlic powder, salt (or bouillon), and cumin right away. It can be tough to whisk them in smoothly once all the other ingredients have been added.
Add chicken and beans. They need to be in the water the longest in order to hydrate properly.
 Once the soup starts to simmer, add corn, onions, peppers (red or green), and chilies. Then turn heat down to medium-low.
Let soup simmer for about 8-10 minutes.  Taste a bean to make sure it is hydrated. If not, let it simmer for another minute or two. Once the beans are well hydrated, add the tomatoes.
Then whisk in the bechamel. Don’t add the bechamel until everything is hydrated because the soup will thicken and the food won’t hydrate well.
Top with cheese and serve with cornbread
or chips.
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- 8 cups water
- ½ cup tomato powder
- 1-2 Tbsp. cumin (to taste)
- 1 Tbsp. garlic powder
- 1-2 tsp. chicken bouillon or salt
- ⅓ cup freeze dried green chilis
- ⅓ cup freeze dried corn
- ¾ cup instant black beans
- ⅓ cup freeze dried bell peppers (I've made it with and without the peppers, and it is great both ways.)
- ¼ cup freeze dried onion
- ½ cup freeze dried chicken slices (I've also used ground beef )
- ⅓ cup freeze dried tomato dices
- ½ cup bechamel powder
- Put water in a medium to large pot.
- Whisk in tomato powder, cumin, garlic, and salt (or bouillon) over medium high heat.
- Taste. Add more seasoning if necessary.
- Add chicken and beans.
- Once water is simmering, add all other ingredients except tomatoes and mix well.
- Bring to a boil, and then lower heat and cover and simmer for 8-10 minutes.
- Taste to make sure beans are well hydrated. Simmer an additional couple of minutes if needed.
- Add tomatoes and stir.
- Whisk in bechamel powder.
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Yum! Sounds good to me. I love homemade soups. My favorite is broccoli cheese soup.
That is my 5 year olds favorite too.
I made this at my mom’s house tonight and realized at the last minute that while I thought she had bechamel powder, it was actually veloute powder. So I just used it instead! What else was I going to do? The soup was almost done! Anyway, it was delicious. Loved it! I’ll try it again sometime with the bechamel. 🙂
Good to know it works both ways Rebekah! I just may have to try it with the veloute!
Other than béchamel, that sounds like my taco soup recipe.
Do you know how irritating typing in that code is?
Maybe you’d get comments if that was not required??
You already have a spam box to check?/
Why the redundancy??
I’m so sorry for your trouble. You can just copy and paste and it shouldn’t take more than a few seconds. (-: I’m not sure if you’ve ever had a blog before, but as they grow you start to get hundreds of spam comments each week. This is incredibly overwhelming time-wise and takes away from my ability to write well. I pay $10 / mo for the copy / paste code and checkbox in order to avoid the even more frustrating captcha. The combo seems to work well for me. When I implemented it my regular comments did not decrease but my spam comments went from 100+ / day to 10-15 / day. I chose this option specifically b/c it shouldn’t take the reader very long.
I made the creamy chicken enchilada soup exactly as directed, and it was unedible. Are you sure there is not a typo in the amount of cumin? It was WAAAAYYYY to much. Made the soup horribly bitter. Should it have been 2 tsp maybe? Also, no mention on whether to rehydrate veggies??? My soup came out so thick that I added 3 c chicken broth and never even used the thickener. Not sure how to deal with all that extra cumin! Can tell it looked wonderful, but the seasonings were just not right!. Going to make it again with maybe 1 tsp of cumin-can always add more.
PS: Even tho I did not like this particular recipe, I agree that THRIVE is absolutely the best freeze dried food available. 99% of it is non GMO, it is packed within 6 hrs of being picked to retain freshness and vitamin content, and it tastes wonderful. I have tried every kind out there, and THRIVE is the absolute best. I use it daily, and have not had 1 thing I did not think was amazing!!
Sorry Sandra, I’ve been out of town in meetings all week. Just got back and I’m so sorry you had trouble with this recipe.
I really do add that much cumin! I guess I just love the flavor. Or it is possible that your cumin is simply much stronger than mine. The cumin I use is pretty cheap. (-: But I also use (in other recipes) a relatively high quality (expensive) ginger powder. I have to add about 1/4 the amount any recipe calls for b/c it is SO strong.
As for the hydrate / not hydrating the veggies, I guess I thought it was clear, but obviously I was mistaken. They hydrate when you add them to the pot of water. No need to pre-hydrate and THEN add them. However, you comment did make me look a bit closer at the recipe and there was a typo on the amounts of some of the veggies I add. I add a little less than what was in the recipe, so thanks for catching that! If you add too many veggies and not enough water, then the soup ends up too thick. However, this is a REALLY thick soup.
Sometimes I won’t add the thickener either. A lot of it will depend on how much “powder” you threw in with the veggies. Each of those freeze dried cans ends up with a lot of powder at the bottom of it. If you scoop out a half cup and it has a lot of powder (in addition to the whole pieces) in that half cup, the soup will end up a lot thicker. This is especially true of the beans! In fact, I will sometimes purposefully add a lot of bean powder to avoid having to add the thickener.
I really appreciate your comments though and that you tried the recipe. I will make some adjustments to it and add some of these details into the recipe!
I am going to try it again, too, but with less cumin. It just looked so good, except for that. My cumin was just purchased from Costco, and their spices are very fresh (and strong). And the nice thing about this type of recipe is that it can be adjusted to your own tastes-more or less veggies, beans, chicken or bullion, thicker or not.
Let me know how it goes! (-:
OMH! I made this along with another blogs recipe for Green Chile Cheddar Muffins and they are my new favorite meal! Thanks for sharing and keep the yummy recipes and ideas coming. 😀
Thanks for coming back and letting me know Lisa. Can we get a link to the muffin recipe?
Absolutely! I should have thought to include it with my post! Shame on me. 😀 Green Chile Cheddar Muffins….
https://thriveblogger.com/?p=852
Thanks Lisa!
I agree with you Misty! The Thrive foods are quite addicting. The flavor is so delicious and it is so wonderful to know I’m not going to run out of food items when people stop over! The more food items I try the more I buy : ) The fresh flavor of food that was freeze dried is truly amazing.
This sounds wonderful-Yum! I agree with Lisa…Crock pots are really one of the best kitchen appliances ; )
Yep. ..especially when paired with no prep THRIVE! (-:
Can’t wait to try this recipe out and I love anything that can be made in a crock pot. My favorite kitchen appliance! 😀
This sounds sooooooooo good I’m going to make it tomorrow! I’ve been working so much lately I haven’t put much time and thought into food for my family. We will all enjoy this recipe. Thanks for sharing.
Yay! It really is tasty and easy!