Closet Cooking

Cooking adventures in a small, closet sized, kitchen. - I came to realize that my meals were boring and that I had been eating the same few dishes over and over again for years. It was time for a change! I now spend my free time searching for, creating and trying tasty new recipes in my closet sized kitchen.

Never miss a recipe! Subscribe to the email Newsletter!

Aztec Soup

[heart_this] · · 21 Comments

Aztec Soup

When I heard about the No Croutons Required event I knew that I wanted to take part. The February theme was vegetarian soups. The only problem was that I had no idea what kind of soup to make. While I was looking for ideas I had the Food Network on in the background and they were talking about Mexican cuisine. They mentioned that some of the regional staples were corn, beans and squash. Those three ingredients sounded like a perfect start to a tasty soup. I added some more regional flavours such as chilies, tomatoes, tomatillos and cumin. I had also been wanting to try using quinoa in a soup and this was a great chance.
Back when the tomatillos were in season I froze a bunch of them and now was the perfect time to pull them out and see how they did. Luckily the tomatillos froze really well and I was about to make some tasty salsa verde to add to the soup.
Although the soup is not the most photogenic it turned out to be really tasty. A nice hot and spicy soup for the cold days that we have been having. I thought that the quinoa added a nice texture to the soup. The slightly sweet corn and squash were a nice contrast to the otherwise spicy soup. I garnished the soup with some sour cream with chopped cilantro. You could also garnish the soup with some tortillas chips, grated cheese, avocado, etc.

Aztec Soup

Aztec Soup

Prep Time: 20 minutes Cook Time: 30 minutes Total Time: 50 minutes Servings: 3
ingredients
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 1 onion (chopped)
  • 2 cloves garlic (chopped)
  • 4 jalapeno peppers (chopped)
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  • 1 butternut squash (cut into bite sized cubes)
  • 8 cups of vegetable stock
  • 1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes
  • 1 19 ounce can black beans
  • 1 cup salsa verde
  • 1 cup quinoa
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 bay leaf
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 cup corn kernels
  • 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
directions
  1. Heat the oil in a pan.
  2. Add the onions and saute until tender, about 3-5 minutes.
  3. Add the garlic and the jalapeno peppers and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute.
  4. Add the chili and cumin and saute for a minute.
  5. Add the squash, stock, tomatoes, salsa verde, quinoa, oregano, bay leaf, salt and pepper.
  6. Simmer until the squash is tender, about 20-30 minutes.
  7. Turn off the heat and stir in the corn and cilantro.
Similar Recipes:
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Aztec Quinoa Salad
Black Bean and Quinoa Chili
Corn Chowder
Pumpkin Quesadillas
Corn and Black Bean Quinoa Salad
Chipotle Chicken and Corn Bacon Chowder

Looking for more soup recipes?
eCookbook Bundle Cover

Get ALL 12 Closet Cooking eCookbooks in a bundle for 70% off! Enjoy some of the tastiest recipes from Closet Cooking along with exclusive cookbook recipes!

Get the Cookbook Bundle Now!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  4. Lisa says

    This is a great entry Kevin! I’m a big fan of quinoa and will have to try this one for sure. As you may have noticed, I’m also very much into spice, so I’m especially impressed! Thanks for participating.

    Reply

  14. tigerfish says

    Never heard of Aztec soup before. I’m thinking how to use my canned tomatoes leftovers…maybe I can try a simple version of your Aztec soup. Erm….I don’t have all the ingredients you listed…so can only use what I have. 😀

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *