Easy Dinner Recipes: Mexican Tomato and Corn Soup

Imagine your favourite tomato soup recipe with the exotic Mexican flavours of cumin, corn and crunchy tortilla cheese chips. Make a big batch of this easy soup and freeze for lazy nights.

For a heartier meal, add some cooked risoni or leftover rice to the soup during the last 5 minutes of cooking. Plus it’s easy to make this a vegetarian soup: just use vegetable stock and leave out the bacon.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 35 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients
4 flour tortillas
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
2 cups fresh or canned corn kernels
40g butter
2 onions, chopped
3 teaspoons cumin
2 cloves garlic, crushed
425g can diced tomatoes
1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 cup Greek-style natural yogurt, for serving
2 middle rashers bacon, trimmed, roughly chopped and cooked till golden
coriander leaves and freshly ground black pepper, for serving

Method
1. Cut tortillas into triangles and place on a baking paper lined oven tray. Sprinkle with cheese and paprika and bake at 180°C for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and tortillas are crisp.

2. Blend half the corn kernels in a food processor until smooth and set aside.

3. Melt butter in a saucepan and saute onions and cumin for 4-5 minutes, until softened. Add garlic and cook for a further minute. Add tomatoes and simmer, covered over low heat for 10 minutes. Stir in stock, oregano, pureed corn and remaining corn kernels and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until corn is cooked.

4. Ladle soup into bowls, dollop yogurt on top, sprinkle with bacon, coriander and pepper. Serve with tortilla chips.

Tip: If you prefer a slightly thicker soup, simmer for an extra 5 minutes, uncovered, before serving.

What’s your favourite soup recipe?