Mexican Tortilla Soup

You think Mexican, you think Tortillas (pronounced as Tortias). The cuisine is extensively built around the tortilla, be it corn , flour or wheat tortilla and various dishes are made in various forms using the tortilla. One of their well known soup is of course - the Tortilla Soup. Mostly chunks of non-veg is added along with vegetables simmered in either beef/chicken stock and garnished with avocado and fried tortilla strips with lots of cilantro.



I have made a vegetarian version and since I believe in making everything from scratch for the purpose of eliminating unwanted preservatives, sodiums and sugars, I have not used tinned stuff ( call me paranoid! cos I think I sure am :)). But for a quick meal you can go for tinned ingredients too.

Ingredients

• 1 onion, chopped
  
  
• 4-5 garlic cloves, minced
  
  
• 1 jalapeno pepper, sliced thinly ( use as per hotness level reqd.)
  
  
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds
  
  
• 1 cup corn kernels ( frozen works fine )
  
  
• 1/4 cooked Kidney beans , soaked overnight (or use canned kidney beans)
  
  
• 6 medium sized Tomatoes ( or use one can Tomatoes - fire roasted variety is what makes the taste scrumptious )
  
  
• 1 avacado, pitted and sliced into cubes
  
  
• 1-2 corn tortillas , stale works best ( good reason to make this soup when you have stale corn tortillas left over!)
  
  
• 5 cups water/ vegetable stock
  
  
• some lime wedges and cilantro for garnish
  
  
• salt and pepper to taste
  

Method

1. Cut the tomatoes in half, brush some olive oil and bake in an Oven at 375F for 10-15min until you see liquid starting to ooze out of the tomatoes. Note This step is to be skipped if you are using Canned tomatoes.



2. Cool them for 2-3 min and then peel the skin from the tomatoes and chop them coarsely.



3.Next heat some Olive oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds along with onions, garlic and chilli. Saute for 3-4 min.



4.Then add the corn, tomatoes and kidney beans and cook for another 1 min.



5.Add the water/stock and simmer for 5-10min with a closed lid. Season with salt and Lots of pepper and in simmer in low heat for another 5min.



6.Meanwhile cut the corn tortiall in strips ( usually thin, I wanted little bigger :) ).



Note It helps if the tortiallas are dry without any moisture since it helps to reduce Oil intake while frying. But incase of using a relatively fresh tortilla jus bake them for 1-2 min in an oven till it gets dry.

7.Fry them in batches in oil till lightly golden.



It gets all crunchy.



8. 2 min before serving , add the avocado, tortillas along with cilantro. Hearty meal and this would serve 4.



This is my entry to my event A.W.E.D with theme - Mexican