It’s been pretty cold and windy here on the East Coast. I’ve been looking for some hot and tasty dishes to warm me up.
We just celebrated Purim the other day and I wanted to have a fun and festive meal to honor the holiday. I wanted to have a fun vegetarian menu that everyone would enjoy.
I came up with vegetarian tortilla soup, make-your-own burritos with an assortment of mix-ins, fish tacos, a giant green salad and a spanish rice. I love of all of the flavors that go along with this menu.
I’ve never made a tortilla soup before. Many of my friends make it, but it’s often made with chicken or other things I don’t eat. I wanted to make this dish my own.
It turns out that I love tortilla soup. Who knew? I also wish I had made double so I could have leftovers. Lesson learned.
Vegetarian Tortilla Soup
Ingredients:
1 tbsp. Mazola corn oil
1 large onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 red pepper, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 tbsp. cumin
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tbsp. salt
3 tsp. ground black pepper
2 14 oz. cans of fire roasted tomatoes mixed
1 4oz. can green chiles, diced (or less if you can’t handle the heat)
5 cups vegetable broth
1 medium zucchini, diced
1 cup corn (frozen is fine)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 tbsp. corn oil
corn tortillas
cilantro, chopped
avocado, sliced
cheese, optional
Directions:
Heat up the oil in a large soup pot. Add in the chopped onion and garlic. Cook a couple of minutes.
Add in the diced peppers and the spices and cook for another 2 minutes.
Add in the canned tomatoes and chiles as well as the soup broth.
Add in the zucchini, corn and black beans.
Let the mixture come to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium-low and cover. Cook for about 45 minutes or so.
With an immersion blender, puree some of the soup. It should still be a little bit chunky.
At this point, you can serve the soup right away, or you can put it away for later. I like when it sits for a half a day in the fridge to let the flavors develop more.
In preparation for serving, cut your corn tortillas in to strips.
Pan fry the tortillas in a small amount of corn oil for a couple of minutes on each side. You just want them to crisp up a little.
Serve your soup with some sliced avocado, lime wedges, chopped cilantro and the tortilla strips.
Enjoy!
About Hindy Garfinkel