Santa Fe Soup: You Want This Flavorful Tex-Mex Recipe! - What a Good Day (2024)

As soon as the weather starts to cool off a bit here in Georgia my mind starts to turn to soup recipes. Santa Fe Soup is usually the first soup I make when the weather starts changing. It’s one of my absolute favorites and I think you will love it too. There is a definite similarity to chili, but, oh my goodness, the flavor is incredible! If you love chili, Tex-Mex, or southwestern flavors then this is the soup recipe that you didn’t know you always wanted!

This delicious recipe came to me through my dear friend and former coworker, Regina. With her permission, I am sharing this recipe with you. The first time I had it, our kindergarten teaching team made Santa Fe soup for a special lunch at our school. Each grade brought crockpots of soup to share. Of course, this one was a big hit. Truly, there are no words to explain how good this soup is and the pictures will never do it justice! You just have to try it!

Santa Fe Soup

Ingredients

There are a good many ingredients so this recipe makes a lot of soup, approximately 7 quarts. As is, you will need 2 four quart crock pots like these if you want to slow cook it! I like to cook mine on the stove top in my stock pot because my other pots are simply not large enough. This is a great recipe to serve if you have a big family or group to feed. In addition, it will refrigerate well for leftovers or freeze well for a later time. I love to make it when all my children and grandchildren are coming for dinner!

It's So Easy, too!

I brown my ground beef, sausage, and onion together in my big stock pot. Then, I drain it well. Next, I just dump in all the other ingredients. I give it a good stir and simmer it on my stovetop for a couple of hours. I stir it pretty often just to keep it from sticking to the pot. If you put it in crockpots you can let it cook for several hours. You can add a little water if it seems too thick. I usually add only about 1/2 cup because I like it thicker. If you have leftovers, you will want to add a little water as it usually does thicken up a bit in the fridge. Just be sure to add it slowly so you don’t thin it out too much.

This Santa Fe Soup recipe is very forgiving. If you want to leave out the diced tomatoes and use crushed tomatoes, or substitute onion powder or minced onion instead of raw onions, or use dark red kidney beans or another kind of beans, or use regular corn instead of shoe peg, or leave something out altogether, you really won’t see much difference. Just don’t leave out the Ro-Tel or the packets! You need those!