Thursday, February 11, 2010

Tortilla Soup


This is one of my favorite recipes because it is easy, I usually have the ingredients on hand, makes a lot, and it is inexpensive. This soup was so good today, after getting 18 inches of snow yesterday.
Ingredients
8 cups of Chicken Broth
2 cups cooked chicken, pork, beef (left over roast or something works great in this)
2 cups cooked beans (I prefer black beans)
1 red pepper cut in chunks
1 onion cut in chunks
Any other veggies you may want to throw in, cut in chunks (today I used carrots and left over sweet potatoes. If you want to add a couple of cloves of peeled garlic, go for it. Right now it give me heartburn)
1 pepper in adobo sauce, plus a little of the sauce (found in the latino food isle)
Freeze the rest of the peppers to use when you make this again.
2 cups cooked rice (I prefer brown)
If you want you can add a can of diced tomatoes too, really, this recipe is so flexible
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Cilantro (Some like a little, some like a lot, some don't like any)
Cheese, tortilla chips, avocado, cilantro, sour cream for garnish
It also tastes great if you have lime wedges and sqeeze them in the soup. A nice touch.

This has several steps you can do simulateously, AKA multi tasking.
While you are cooking the rice preheat oven to 425 and cut up veggies into chunks. Put veggies in a 9x13 pan and drizzle with about 2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil. Add Salt and Pepper. Cook for 20 minutes, stir and cook for another 20 minutes. (I like to roast several veggies at a time, then puree and freeze them for later meals. Just a shortcut.)
Puree veggies in a food proccessor. (I also puree the beans so my kids don't complain about them. I choose my battles).
Once veggies and rice are done, dump all ingredients into a big pot and simmer for about 30 minutes until flavors blend. Take out the pepper, unless you have someone who is daring and wants their tongue to feel like it is on fire. They will say, like Shaun Spencer on "PSYCH" - "Did you make this with motlen lava?"
Crunch up chips in the bottom of bowls, add soup, top with whatever toppings you have. Enjoy. Freeze left overs for another meal. You may want to add water when you re heat this as the rice tends to soak up the liquid and make the soup thicker.

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