Mexican leftover soup

Save the leftovers Mexican Soup.   OLE

Once again my fridge was packed full of bit of leftover food that individually don't amount to much but toss them all in a pot and toss in some water and some extra bits and it turns into some Mexican leftover Soup.   

The thing about buying food from farmer's markets is that you pick up what you know you can only get at limited times and in short supply.   So for me sometimes I buy food without really planning my meals.   I have found over the years that planning my meals doesn't really work for me.  When I have packed lunches for work I always end up forgetting that I brought lunch and would go out to get something.  Or I wouldn't feel like eating what I brought...or the last minute lunch invite or leftover food from a meeting or someone bringing something in.   A lot of food has gone to waste over the years and this is another attempt for me to save some of it before I would have to toss it in the garbage.

What I had on hand......

Leftover ingredients:

cooked corn from the farmer's market 

cooked onions

homemade salsa

cooked bacon

Extra Ingredients added:

A can of Black beans

2 cooked chicken breasts

Cilantro

Salt and Pepper

Chipotle Pepper

2 tbsps Salsa verde

2 tbsps Oil

2 -3 cups of water

Garnish:

Lime

Tortilla chips

Sour Cream

Cilantro

Directions:

I added some oil to the bottom of a stock pot and then added the onions, the salsa, the corn and the bacon.

Add the Salt, Pepper and chipotle pepper.

Add the salsa verde

I added a couple of cups of water and let it cook for a while until the flavours developed.   

I cooked 2 chicken breasts in a frying pan with salt, pepper, paprika and cumin and cooked until golden brown.  Once it's cooked you can shred it into little strips and then add it to the stock pot.

Add a can of rinsed black beans to the pot.

Adjust seasonings to your taste and cook until the chicken takes on the flavour of the broth.

It should take about 40 minutes of cooking but you can adjust to how intense you want it or not.   The longer you cook it the chicken will break down and the vegetables will all blend together.

Ladle it into a bowl and squeeze a pice of lime to brighten up the flavour.

Add a spoonful of sour cream and a sprig of cilantro and add some tortilla chips or tortillas fried and cut into strips.  I used some leftover Mad Mexican chips.

Adding bacon isn't typical in making this soup but it added a great smoky flavour and really gave it a great rounded taste.

It's basically a meal in a bowl.   And it saved my fridge once again.   

I can probably freeze some of it now that the weather is cooling down it would be a great fall meal.