No Croutons Required "Spicy Soups"

Holler and Lisa are at it again this month with No Croutons Required! This month’s theme is “spicy soups”. With that in mind, I went south of the border to Mexico! In our house we love spicy foods, especially Mike. So just for him, I usually have out in my container garden 3 or 4 varieties of hot peppers growing all year round. Therefore I was pretty excited about this soup as I had a couple of ingredients right out the back door. This soup even broke a sweat on me!

This is a Spicy White Bean and Tomato Soup, better known in my house as

Salsa Soup

1 – 16 oz. can of vegetable broth, divided
2 heaping teaspoons of chili powder
2 heaping teaspoons of cumin
1 – 16 oz. can of white beans, I used navy, rinsed and drained
2 cayenne peppers, or you can use whatever hot pepper you desire
1 onion peeled and cut into quarter wedges
2 cloves of garlic peeled
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1 teaspoon of sugar
¼ cup chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons of fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Salt to taste

In a Dutch oven over medium heat combine 1 cup of broth, chili powder, cumin and beans.
In a food processor while running, drop in your garlic. Then open lid and add the other cup of broth, your hot peppers and onion. Pulse till veggies are chopped. Add this to your beans.
Next add your tomatoes and cilantro to processor and pulse a few times to chop. Add this to the beans, along with the sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Let simmer for about 20 minutes till soup is a bit thick and the veggies are cooked.
When soup is a bit thick, remove from heat and add in your lime juice and olive oil. Stir and taste, then add whatever amount of salt that you prefer.
This baby is ready to serve!

Since this is a salsa soup, you will need to have some tortilla chips to accompany. We prefer the organic blue corn ones, but any tortilla chip will do. This is a great soup for weeknights as it comes together really fast. Salsa soup would also be great for a starter soup if you plan to have a big Mexican feast for your next party!

If you have not stopped over to see Holler at Tinned Tomatoes or Lisa at Lisa’s Kitchen, do not wait any longer! Both girls really know how to veg it up! Thanks again you guys for hosting such a fun event! Oh, I almost forgot, don’t forget to check Holler’s site shortly after March 22nd for a fabulous roundup of “spicy soups!”

Cheers!