This soup is fun. Chicken soup is a wonderful, staple food. But whoever thought of mixing it up a bit, adding a whole lot of tomato, cumin, coriander and then topping it with tortilla chips is a genius.
There is something really cheeky about having a bowl full of vegies and chicken and then dipping tortillas in it. It’s like when you were little and used to dip the McDonalds fries in your ice cream. If you haven’t done that, I’m not an advocate of McDonalds, but you should go do it. Now.
I didn’t make this. I came home from work one day to find the apartment smelling fabulous – my boyfriend had been cooking. This is not unusual, he is a regular dinner maker in our house. But we both agreed this soup was especially good. So I got him to photograph it for me straight away so I could put it up.
Nowadays when I’m looking for recipes I do it via google images, or the search feature on TasteSpotting. That way it brings up results from fellow bloggers, who I know have tried and tested the recipe. And then you can be inspired by the pictures. I recommend it. This is how he found this soup, it came from Taste Food Blog. Thanks!
I’ve Australian-ified the recipe, so if you want to talk in ounces and cilantro, instead of grams and coriander try the original recipe. But I have tried to put common translations in brackets. The recipe has only been altered slightly from the original (more spices, and some vegies that were in season).
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium brown onion, chopped
1 cup celery, diced
1 red capsicum (pepper), diced
1 green capsicum (pepper), diced
1 jalapeno pepper, stemmed and seeded, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 small zucchini (courgette), cut in 1/4 inch dice
4 cups chicken stock
1 400 grams can Italian plum tomatoes, with juice
1/4 cup tomato paste
4 teaspoons ground cumin (I added more because I really like spice, original recipe has 2)
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
2 chicken breasts – roasted them with a bit of salt, pepper and olive oil, then shredded
1 ear of corn, slice kernels off (about 1 cup)
1 cup cooked black beans (I used a tin of red kidney beans, as had it on hand)
1-2 teaspoons salt, to taste
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup cilantro (coriander) leaves
Tortilla chips, broken up, to serve.
Method
- Heat oil in a soup pot over medium heat.
- Add the onion, garlic and celery and sauté until softened.
- Add the capsicums and continue to sauté for 2 minutes.
- Stir in zucchini and sauté briefly, 1 minute,
- Add the chicken stock, tin of tomatoes with juice, tomato paste and spices.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Stir in corn, beans and chicken and simmer until heated through. Cook for as long as you like on a low heat, we had the luxury of a couple of hours which really let the flavours come out.
- Add salt and pepper and taste for seasoning.
- Garnish with coriander and tortilla chips.
Cooks’ notes: Next time I make this dish I’ll make it with chicken thigh, as the chicken breast was a little dry.
Healthy? It’s 457 calories before you start adding tortilla chips. At which point it’s up to you how unhealthy it becomes. If, like me, you cover your soup in them, and then continue to add more as you eat, it becomes about 580 calories.
Gluten free? If you have gluten free tortilla chips, and gluten free stock, then you’re good to go.
Storage: Freezes well. We had this over two nights and it kept fine until the next day. As it’s chicken, I wouldn’t be tempting fate by keeping it longer then one day in the fridge, and re-heat well.
