Chicken Tortilla Soup

Rach-

I have a bowl of flour and yeast sitting in my pantry waiting to be sourdough starter - Thanks for the post, I have been wanting to try sourdough for awhile but needed a push. Mike loves anything sourdough - I have to confess that I'm on the fence, but am hoping to be won over by a homemade product.

The rainy weather had me craving soup this week. Grey skies, combined with a bag of 5 avacados, and the cilantro growing like a weed in my little garden, pointed me in a Tex-Mex direction. This soup recipe is a template - it's very versatile and can be tailored for one's pantry. This was last night's version:

In a soup pot with maybe a tsp of canola oil I sauteed 1 roughly diced onion, 2 cloves garlic, and the tip of a jalapeno (optional). I also threw in half a sliced tomato (leftover) and 2 other roughly chopped tomatoes. I added in one large chicken breast. I stirred the vegetables and flipped the chicken breast once to brown.

Then I added approximately 2 litres of chicken stock (I use msg and salt-free powdered chicken soup base because it's easy to have in my cupboard - this chicken would taste great with homemade stock).

Seasoning (you could substitute taco seasoning instead of the following):

I added 1/2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp ground pepper, and about 1/8 tsp of ground chipotle pepper (1 tsp ground chili pepper would work instead).

Oh, and I had about 1 cup of leftover tomato sauce so I added that too. I let this whole mixture simmer for about 45 minutes.

I then removed the chicken and shredded it. I used my hand-held blender to puree the vegetables (again, I do this because Mike hates any texture, you could chop the veggies finely and skip this). I seasoned the soup with more salt and pepper to taste, added a shot of garlic powder to boost the garlic flavour, and added the chicken, 2 cups of corn and 2 cups of cooked black beans.

To serve: This is the fun part, everyone can add their own topping according to preference. I even leave out the beans sometimes and let people add their own.
Toppings we like:

• cilantro (you love it or hate it. I love it!)
  
• shredded cheese
  
• sour cream
  
• tortilla or corn chips - I cut up strips of tortillas, brush with oil and broil them for a few minutes
• sliced avacados- my favourite

Everyone around the table - even our littlest 8-month eater- loved this meal.