Everything-but-the-Kitchen-Sink Southwest Beef Fajita Soup

Well, that's a mouthful, eh?  This is my last in the "What the hell do I do with all the fajita meat that was on clearance?!" series.  You probably thought you'd seen the last of that long ago, but I found this one lurking in a folder, all but forgotten.

And all that fuss over a little soup.  Okay, so its a lot of soup.  This stuff FILLED my two largest soup pots.  I think I ended up with something like 5 or 6 quarts of soup.  Sometimes I over-do it.  We ended up rushing around to families' houses trying to pawn some off there was so much.

Basically, if you're cooking for a crowd or want a soup that's good to put up for the winter, this is your best bet.  It freezes beautifully and is still just as good when thawed and heated up.

First off:  MEAT.  There's about half a pound of pre-seasoned fajita skirt steak in there.  Pour water in until it is just a few inches over the top of the meat, and set it on high.  This stuff will need to boil for about 3 hours, or until the meat starts to fall apart.  Keep adding water so that it stays a few inches over the meat while it is cooking.

Next, chop up one large (or in my case, two small) onions and add them to the pot.  You can do this before or after the meat falls apart, it doesn't really matter.

Then, add about 2 or 3 tablespoons of garlic.  Once again, before or after meat falls apart, all a matter of preference.

After the meat falls apart is when you add the rest of the vegetables.  You'll notice there is a TON of different stuff in this soup.  When we were at the store, I asked the Wookie what he wanted in a soup and he listed off bacon, peas, carrots, corn, tomatoes, green beans...Zucchini & poblano got tossed in due to a massive fridge-cleaning-out-about-to-go-bad vegetable...exodus...thing.  Anyway, I had two zucchini sitting in the fridge, so those got chopped up and tossed in, too.

Dump in a can of diced tomatoes.  Do not drain.  No draining.

One can of green beans...Again, no draining.

Now, this is where my picture folder starts to get fishy.  I added one large poblano pepper, a whole bag of frozen carrots, one of corn, and half a bag of peas...But where the pictures of all this got off to is anyone's guess.  So just close your eyes and imagine all the pretty, brightly-colored vegetables being tossed into the pot.

Got it?

Good.

Here was my starring spice lineup.  I kept it fairly simple.  I used four bay leaves (two per pot once I discovered there was so much I'd have to split it up into two pots), and about a tablespoon of cumin, a tablespoon of cilantro, three of parsley, and sea salt and black pepper to taste.  I'm guesstimating here, since I sort of eyeball my spices.  Keep in mind, I made mine strong since I ended up making rice to pour the soup over, so you may want to start by adding half the amount of spices, let it simmer 15 minutes, taste, then repeat until you're happy with the flavor.

Next, the bacon.  Fry up 6 to 8 slices, then chop it and add it to the mix.  I forgot to take pictures until I was about to scoop the last piece that had escaped into the pot, so that's all you get.  I totally sucked at the picture thing with this recipe, but it is soooo tasty.

Make some rice to pour it over if you want and that's it!

<3
Wookie Wifey