The best thing I ever ate was a bowl of sweet potato soup at Red Fish on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. It was so good I wanted to lick the bowl... but I decided not to, being out in public and all. I still attempted to scrape every drop out with my spoon. This soup was so good, I can't even describe it, I can only describe how I felt when I was eating it: I never wanted to stop! I have tried a few times to make sweet potato soup, but mine may never be as good as the soup at Red Fish. I'm ok with that, it sounds to me like a good reason to go back to New Orleans some day!
So I've kind of been addicted to making soup lately; carrot soup (not bad), cauliflower soup (nuff said), sweet potato soup (mmmmm). Last night I made some vegetable soup that actually turned out to be very delicious. When I sat down to eat it, I added a little bit of chicken, which I guess made it no longer vegetable soup, but it was still good. Chunky soup is all about the broth. The broth has to be delicious. Having been absorbed by the Mexican culture, of course I squeezed some lime juice over the top before eating it, and added some condiments, this time queso fresco.
VEGETABLE SOUP
1 medium onion
4 cloves of garlc
10 baby carrots
1 zucchini
1/2 of a large sweet potato (about 1 cup diced)
2 roma tomatoes
1 can of chicken broth
2 tablespoons of butter
Boiling water
Seasonings: salt, pepper, chile powder, granulated garlic, cumin, curry powder, chile con limon
Queso Fresco (crumbled or chopped) and lime for garnish
Chop all the veggies to a similar size: about 1/2 inch cubes. Then melt the butter in a pan and add the onions and garlic. Sprinkle the seasonings and saute for a few minutes until the onions almost start to brown. You can tell by the way it smells, since the chile powder makes everything red. Before it burns, add some water to the pan, about an inch. Then you can add the chicken broth and the rest of the veggies. Add more water so the veggies are covered, and add more of the seasonings.
Now let the veggies cook until they are soft, stir it once in a while. You might have to add water sometimes so the veggies stay in the water. When the veggies are soft, taste the soup, and add more seasonings! You want this soup to have a lot of flavor! The curry powder added a really special flavor!
Now it's ready to eat. Garnish the soup with queso fresco and squeeze a little bit of lime juice into the soup. Yummy!!!! You'll be very pleased with yourself for making such a delicious soup!
