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To live and enjoy every day to its fullest, use my gifts to help others, I travel to wherever passion finds me.

What Will She Paint?

So many friends I met here...!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

THE THIRD LITTLE.....


The third little blessing (the tail end of the Counting Little 1, 2, 3... post) is a warm tasty soup on a cold night during the week. I pass the recipe on to you  since I was reading that one of my readers was always wondering about this soup.
This is how I got to know this soup. One time a friend and I were having lunch at Marie Calenders Restaurant. Since we were both poor students, my frugal friend had a rule to keep her expenditure on lunch less than $5. She talked me into trying Tortilla Soup. 
It was even better the French Onion Soup, which used to be my favorite! I loved it and found a recipe from Pilsbury (I believe). I eat it as a main dish and serve it with toasted tortilla strips and fresh cilantro on a cold night during the week!

NOTE 
For people not familiar with cilantro (on pic). It is also called Chinese parsley. It has a different fragrance than Italian parley, and its leaves are softer and wilt more quickly.  
Whitemist's blog alerted me that "a small percentage of the population has a genetic variation that makes cilantro taste like soap." (I'm feeling sorry for these people!)
If corn tortillas are not available where you live, flour tortillas is a good substitute. It becomes harder when they do not sell any kind of tortilla. On the pic I put a tortilla  on a small plate,so you can see how they look like -a thin flour pancake (a little bit chewier than the soft puffy cake-like pancake of Mac Donalds!).
You can see that I use sweet potatoes, not yams (doctors orders for hubby whose white bloodcell count is low, are dark veggies.)


TORTILLA SOUP


Ingredients
1.   2 cups of onions, slice
       4 garlic cloves, minced
2.    4 medium yams, peel and cut in cubes
       6 cups of chicken broth
       1 teaspoon cumin
       1 teaspoon oregano leaves
       1 teaspoon chili powder
       1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper (or cayenne)
3.     28 ounce can of green chili peppers, undrained
        2 cans of stewed tomatoes, undrained
        2 cups of corn
4.     6 6-inch corn tortillas
        6 tablespoons of fresh cilantro
        Jack cheese, grated


Work sequence (corresponding with numbers above)
1. Saute in hot oil till tender 5-7 minutes

2.  Stir in, bring to a boil. Cover an simmer 10-15 min.

     To toast Tortillas:
     Put oven on, 15 min. before serving the soup
     Cut tortillas in 1 x 1/2 inch strips. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray. Bake 8-12 min. on 375 degrees Fahrenheit -till light brown and crisp

3.  Add to soup and cook 5-7 minutes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
to compare with some other recipes: 
Latina.com adds chicken, 2 tsp. cumin and 1 teaspoon Mexican oregano, 
Swanson adds salsa and 2 Tablespoons lime juice, and 
Betty Crocker adds a Jalepeno  chili and Avocado
Serve with Toasted corn tortillas, fresh cilantro, and Jack cheese.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Enjoy my friends!




~

22 comments:

Stephanie V said...

Oh, my, just reading the recipe brings sunshine to this gray rainy day! Thank you...I see tortilla soup for dinner.

Midwest to Midlands said...

Sounds great, love Tortilla soup and Marie Calendars. Will have to give it a try soon.

Clytie said...

That sounds absolutely yummy. I have had tortilla soup before, but this one has totally different ingredients. I will try this soon!

Angie Muresan said...

Oh, how delicious! I've been a fan of tortilla soup for a long time. Thanks for posting the recipe, it sounds so easy to make.

Irene said...

The soup sounds great. I wish I had a family of four to share it with. You do always come up with great recipes that a person with a gastric band can´t eat, but I enjoy reading them anyway and pretending I can. I love tortillas. It´s better than bread. I also love quesedillas. It´s been a long time since I had one of those. I think I need to have my gastric band emptied.

Unknown said...

This is a soup I know well. you should also warn your readers that a small percentage of the population has a genetic variation that makes cilantro taste like soap! Otherwise for the rest of us it is delicious!

DeniseinVA said...

This sounds so yummy and I will get those ingredients next time I am at the store. I first discovered Marie Calenders when we lived in California. It is a great restaurant. California is also where I tasted Cilantro for the first time. Strangely we didn't like it very much, but what a shock years later we experienced this great taste sensation in a dish we had and found it was Cilantro. Can't get enough of it now. We eat it with everything.

PJ said...

I LOVE tortilla soup it's just near perfect, especially when it's homemade. Thanks for sharing!

Jeannette StG said...

TOT THE FIRST 3 FRIENDS:
I added some variations of some other tortilla soup recipes!

Stephanie,
Thank you for your kind comment -hope you'll like it when you make it as mcuh as I do!

Jane (midlands),
Since lately you've (probably) eaten so many exotic dishes, I think you'll like this one!

Clytie,
Now I'm curious which ingredients you have in your tortilla soup! Just let me know which one tastes better -and if it's yours, please give me your recipe :)

Angie,
It is easy (since I paint, I don't want to spend extra time on complicated recipes -try it -hope you'll like it!

Jeannette StG said...

Irene,
You can't eat certain foods, or you can't eat as much? In the latter case, maybe you can make one fourth of the recipe?
Sorry, Irene, Limburg is probably one of those places where they don't sell tortillas! (But who knows in Maastricht?) I heard that there was a restaurant with Mexican food in Amsterdam (but that was a long time ago) -any place where they serve Spanish food would probably have it?

Joey,
I had no idea! That is new to me! But I will add it to my post:)

Denise,
Haha, I know what you mean! I had that with avocado -one has to develop a taste for it! Living in another country definitely has its thrills, doesn't it?:)

Jeannette StG said...

Paula,
You're welcome, Friend! I love your new profile shot! Perfect with those roses as a crown on her head!

Rosie said...

Great recipe - sounds just the thing for a cold evening. I love your white serving tureen too:)

Irene said...

We have tortillas at the Albert Heijn in Maastricht, Jeannette. We're very up to date.

I can't eat any kind of chunky food. I would be full after two bites. Everything I eat has to be very liquidy. It takes the fun out of eating. I'm seriously considering having my gstric band emptied so I can eat normal food again.

Floss said...

I think I need to make this - it's the second time I've seen the recipe whilst blogging and I mentioned it to my husband last time. He refused to believe that you could put tortillas in any state into a soup (typical Euro-centric) so now I'm going to have to show him how it's done! I can get corn tortillas in our local supermarket, believe it or not... So thanks for the recipe, and for your kind comment about my daffodils. I guess you are just too far south for pussy willow?

A Lady's Life said...

This is a very healthy soup.
Definitely on the list to make :)

Jeannette StG said...

Irene,
Yes, I know a few people who have had gastric surgery -and they have the same ambivalent feelings as you have about it. Wow, tortillas at Albert Heijn - great!

Rosie,
Went to your blog at the right time:) The soup tureen was a steal -a pretty nice store closed, so I got this at a very reduced price.

Floss,
I was smiling when I read your comment - go for it girl! About the pussy willow -yes, California is probably too much South When I was living in Holland in my teens, I remember some of my friends picking them where they were growing in the wild.

A Lady's Life,
And tasty too! I mostly leave the peppers/chilies out of the soup pot, so everyone can add or forego of them.

Unknown said...

I come from Elizabeth's blog and any recipe is a good recipe for me. I've not tried this but sure looks good :)

Jeannette StG said...

M. Kate,
Try it to see if you really like it and keep it, that's what I do...visited your blog and saw that you live in Malaysia -what do you mostly eat day by day, Asian or American, or...?
Since your profile flower is still a bud, I wonder how it looks like when it is in full bloom...

Reader Wil said...

A cup -a-soup is a joy for ever! I can keep my head clear when I have soup on a cold winter's day!
Thanks for your visit. I can understand that the lady in your photo cannot keep her head in that position.LOL

Cezar and Léia said...

Bonjour!!!
wow it sounds goodd!Perfect and delicious, for sure I need to try it!
Thanks for this "delicious"post and all clues!
hugs
Léia

Rudee said...

Yum. I love tortilla soup and I adore cilantro. I knew some don't care for its flavor, but I never knew why. Now I do! Too bad for them, but that's more cilantro for me

Jeannette StG said...

Reader Wil,
Soup is great for a cold day -in contrast to the summer, then I really feel like salad:)
The lady who can't keep her head straight is playing peek-a-boo (kiekeboe)with her child is one of the Hungtington Library statues in the rose garden:)

Leia,
Thank you, Friend! It's worth a try:) The notes are because I learned all these "clues" in
California!

Rudee,
Yeah, I had no idea that there could be a variation in what people actually taste!! Any anomaly Whitemist-blogger (see above) will know:)