Hot and Spicy Mexican Soup

Recipe: Chili and tomato Mexican inspired soup

1 onion, chopped finely

1 clove garlic, chopped finely

4 rashers back bacon, chopped

6 mushrooms, quartered

1/4 cup red cabbage, shredded finely

1 large handful spinach

1/2 tbsp oil

1/2 tsp butter

1/2 tin whole plum tomatoes

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tbsp dried oregano

3 tsp sauce from a tin of chipotle chilies in adobo sauce or 1 tbsp chili powder or 4 chilies, chopped

1/2 tsp smoked paprika (pimenton)

2 cups of chicken stock or 2 cups of water with either 2 tsp chicken stock concentrate paste or 1 stock cube.

1/2 tsp salt

black pepper

1 tbsp sour cream

1/2 cup grated cheddar or other strong tasting cheese

Melt the butter and oil in a heavy casserole type pan and saute the bacon over medium heat until crispy. 

Add the onion, garlic, mushrooms and red cabbage and stir well. Cover, reduce the heat and let saute gently until the vegetables are soft, (about 20 minutes).

Add the cumin and dried oregano and stir well.

Add the tomatoes, chili sauce, powder or chilies, chicken stock, spinach, pimenton and salt and stir well. Bring to the boil, cover, reduce heat to low and let cook for about 30 minutes.

When ready, ladle into soup bowls, garnish with 1 tbsp sour cream, half the cheese and grind over some black pepper. Add more sour cream if you're hurting or none at all if you have some strange asbestos mouth, like that episode of the Simpsons when Homer drank candle wax.