Mmmmm, The way to their hearts is through their tummies.. Fiesta Soup Recipe

As I thought about what to make my Valentines for supper last night, I was in a funk. Nothing sounded good, or perfect enough, and I couldn’t incorporate hearts into anything I had. I had planned to pick up a Papa Murphy’s heart pizza earlier in the day, but Miss Ava our 4yr old Autistic daughter did NOT have a good day at therapy. So plans changed.

I’m in the kitchen staring into the fridge, opening cupboards, and I start thinking what I needs to get eaten up before vacation (next week)? I decided my normal go to of pasta wouldn’t cut it for a special valentines day dinner.. SOO I end up making Fiesta Soup with Tortilla strips. The reaction from my family was awesome! They loved it, bowls were cleaned, leftovers barely made it to lunch today.. So I had to share my recipe with you.

The meat in this soup can be cut out entirely, or substituted with chicken, steak, or even pork.

Ingredients for soup:

• 2 oz Olive Oil
• 2 Russet Potatoes
•  2 cups/160z Chicken Stock
• 1 tsp chopped garlic
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 can diced tomatoes with green chili’s (similar to Rotel)
• 3 Italian Sausages
• 1 cup diced Celery
• 1 cup kernel corn
• Toppings, I used shredded cheese & sour cream as well as home made Tortilla Strips (see recipe below)
• 1 c pasta, cooked al dente (1/2 cup dried pasta, is approx 1 cup cooked)

Poke potatoes with a fork and place in microwave on high heat for 7 minutes, when cool dice into 1″ chunks and set aside.  In a stockpot on medium heat place olive oil, remove sausage from casings (I did this by just squeezing 1″ balls of the casings, perfect little meat balls), and place into stock pot, add can of tomatoes and cook for 3-5 minutes until meat is no longer pink.  Add celery, corn, spices, chicken stock, and potatoes to stockpot, bring to a boil, then add pasta and  simmer for 5 minutes. Spoon into bowls, top with tortilla strips, sour cream & shredded cheese.  If you’re thinking why potatoes & pasta, well they work great as natural thickeners as they break down, so they give the soup a awesome texture, and well we’re Irish there has to be potatoes.

Next recipe up is homemade Goldfish/Cheeze Crackers!