National Homemade Soup Day – Jamie’s 15 Minutes Mexican Tomato Soup

It’s America’s National Homemade Soup Day so we are going to enjoy an amazing soup recipe. And we are going to share that with you!

It is also Spice it up! day here on Magliano’s Comfort Food and we are pumping up the spice factor with this tasty recipe.

It is also the season for LIME and AVOCADO and we decided to put them to good use!

Today we are bringing this from our FAVORITE Chef.  Professional Chef Jamie Oliver knows just how to prepare amazing, mouthwatering, show-stopping dishes!!!

This recipe shouldn’t take you more than 15 minutes to prepare from start to finish as long as you have your ingredients prepared and ready to go, some boiling water, and everything within reach. It is also a freezable soup so you can prepare large batches that you can freeze in advance and use on a busy day!

 

Ingredients:

For the Soup:

• Spring Onions (1 small bunch)
• Olive Oil (3-4 tbsp)
• Fresh Parsley / 1 bunch (the original recipe calls for coriander but we’d rather go with parsley – it’s up to you!)
• Garlic Bulb / 1 (the original recipe calls for just 4 cloves of garlic but we looooove garlic – it’s up to you!)
• Basmati Rice / 80 gr (any type of white rice will do…)
• Jarred Red Peppers / 450 gr (they don’t need to be jarred – you can always toast and peel them yourself)
• Chopped Tomatoes / 2 x 400 gr tins (they can be tins of whole tomatoes as well – they don’t necessarily need to be chopped)
• Limes / 2 (optional – for us it’s a must!)
• Water / 800 ml (optional – for us it’s a must!)

 

For the Yogurt Sauce (we never serve it with the sauce but we tried it and it’s tasty):

• Fat-Free Natural Yoghurt / 250 ml (if you choose to skip the preparation of this sauce, you can still enjoy the yogurt by adding it straight into your bowl of soup when serving)
• Pickled Jalapeño Chilies (2 tsp)
• Fresh Mint – 1/2 a bunch (you can also use the mint as a sprinkle by slicing it very finely and adding it straight to your bowl of soup when serving)

 

For the Sprinkles:

• Cherry Tomatoes (1 handful)
• Avocado / a ripe one (you can leave it out but it’s very tasty)
• Feta Cheese / 30 gr (we usually use around 200 – 300 gr for 6 people)

 

For the Nachos:

• Fresh Red and Green Chilies / 2-3 (we usually use them as sprinkles right inside the soup bowl because we don’t prepare the nachos to serve with the soup every time we have it)
• Low-Salt Tortilla Chips (175 gr)
• Cheddar Cheese (50 gr)
• Smoked Cheese / 50 gr (we also add this and the taste is off the charts!)

 

 

Preparation:

For the Soup

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C (350 degrees F) on the grilling function.

Clean and finely slice the green onions, reserving some for garnishing.

The part you want to save for garnishing purposes you can place in a bowl. The rest of it go ahead and place it in a big pot with the olive oil, on high heat. Sprinkle on top the parsley or coriander stalks (saving the leaves for later – we like to finely slice them and use them for garnishing). Add in the mashed garlic and the rice, the jarred red peppers (that you drained before), and the tinned tomatoes. Pour in 850 ml of boiling water, add some salt, and put the lid on, letting the soup boil and the rice cook. Make sure you mix it now and then! You don’t want your rice to stick to the bottom of your pan.

As soon as the rice has cooked, use the vertical blender that you already used to prepare the yogurt sauce (see “For the Yogurt Sauce”) to blend your soup into a smooth consistency (or a little bit more chunky if you prefer…). As soon as you complete this step make sure to add in the juice of ½ a lime. Season to taste and enjoy it like this (a little bit thicker and more of a cream soup) or thin it out with some more water (to taste). Drizzle the soup with the pungent yogurt sauce and serve it with the nachos, the sprinkles, and some slices of lime.

 

For the Sprinkles

In the meantime prepare your sprinkles. Cut the cherry tomatoes in quarters and the avocado fruit in half (throwing away the pit), then place them on a big wooden board with the green onions, parsley or coriander leaves, and feta cheese. Finely slice the chilies and place half of them on the board as well, reserving the other half to sprinkle over the nachos later. Cut 1 lime into quarters and place it on the board as well.

 

For the Nachos

Spread the tortilla chips on a baking sheet, grate the cheddar and the smoked cheese on top of them and sprinkle the rest of the chilies on top as well. Place the baking tray in the preheated oven, on the top rack of the oven, right under the broiler. Let the cheese melt and the nachos brown a little bit. As soon as they are brown enough, you want to make sure that you take them out! You don’t want your nachos to burn! That can happen in just a couple of seconds…

 

For the Yogurt Sauce

Place all of the ingredients for the yogurt sauce in a bowl and use a vertical blender to blend them until you obtain a fine paste. This is your sauce! The same vertical blender will help you blend the soup into a smooth consistency (no need to wash it in between).

Enjoy! 🙂

Tip:

– You can also serve some steaming soft tortillas instead of the traditional bread to go along with your soup. We always serve it that way and everybody loves it! Especially the kids!!!

– Make a larger batch (we usually quadruple it) and freeze the other 3 batches of soup for a later date. Maybe a busy day with no time for cooking! Just let it cool down, divide in between 3 freezable plastic bags and freeze it on a flat surface so it’s easier to stack inside of your deep freezer or freezer once it’s frozen.

Sources:

 

Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals Cookbook:

https://www.amazon.com/15-Minute-Meals-Jamie-Oliver/dp/1443429252