Tortilla Soup will help you get a healthy start to year
In the wake of New Year’s resolutions — to lose weight, to eat right or to save more money — I find that soup motivates me to achieve any of my targets this season. Or, at least, warm my belly while preparing my body for some serious resolutions.
Today, I present readers with one of my all-time favorite soup recipes: Tortilla Soup flavored with the spices of Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine and the healthy (albeit filling) ingredients for a New Years resolution.
Traditionally prepared in their more popular chimichanga American formats, Mexican and Tex-Mex dishes don’t always need to be heavy. As much as I love thick bean burritos dressed in cheese or sour cream, I recognize that Mexican cuisine perhaps offers some of the easiest ways to keep cooking healthful with its emphasis on corn, beans, and other fresh ingredients.
Since the staples of Mexican cooking are corn and beans, Tortilla Soup uses such popular ingredients in a format that’s equal parts hardy and light. Corn chips garnish a robust broth where black beans, corn, and smoked turkey pack the broth with natural flavors.
As for garnishes that are part guilty and part fresh, any combination of ripe avocado, cilantro, cheese, or sour cream dress the soup wonderfully as well.
This past Saturday, I ran in the annual Louisiana Marathon and Cypress Challenge 5-K with my good friend Ellen. Although preparing for race day was paramount, eating delicious Tortilla Soup that’s as good for you as it is good made getting ready for the race just a little bit easier.
Pair my Tortilla Soup filled with every ingredient from your favorite burrito and crispy restaurant-style tortillas this new year and perhaps even you, too, will start on those resolutions with a little race.