My Mom’s recipes - Tortilla Soup

Forget chicken soup, this tortilla soup really is for the soul.

Let me tell you why project is so important to me. My mom was a great cook, she was a full-time home maker and made all our meals from scratch. She created a handwritten cookbook with all her recipes and some handed down from her mother and grandmother. There were over 120 recipes and my dad, being an engineer, created a way of organizing and indexing as my mom continued to add new recipes to her book.

The recipes are so delicious and remind me of my life in Mexico while living with my parents. Both of them have passed on, and for a few years I have been thinking of a way to honor them by cooking my mom’s recipes and photographing the process. I am also hoping this project will help keep some of these wonderful recipes alive..

With some support from my business mentor, (optional- Amy V. Cooper,) I took the leap to begin this project and hope to recreate new recipes every month.

I chose Tortilla Soup as the first recipe to recreate, my first time making it from my mom’s recipe.

Below you can see a page from my mom’s book written in Spanish, I always admired her cursive writing. If you keep scrolling, I gave my best effort to translate it so hopefully someone who speaks English can make it too.
Have any questions? shoot me an email or message on on Instagram.

Tortilla Soup

2 dozen tortillas
6 large tomatoes
half of a large onion
3 garlic cloves
1 epazote bunch
1 liter chicken broth

-For serving
3 avocados
sour cream
100g Pork Rinds (Chicharron)
100g Queso Fresco
4 dried Pasilla chiles or ancho chiles

Using a dry iron skillet, place the tomatoes whole, onion and garlic to roast, about 8 minutes, until they develop char marks all around. You may need to pull out the onion and garlic sooner because they tend to char faster.

Place the tomatoes, onions, garlic and s small amount of broth, around 1/2 a cup in a blender and mix it until its completely pureed. Using a Sieve, pour the liquid through the sieve into a cooking pot. You will need a spoon to make sure all the liquid passes through the sieve. Pour the rest of the chicken broth in the pot, add 6 to 8 epazote leaves, and set it to medium heat until it starts to boil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Using kitchen scissors cut the tortillas into strips no wider than half an inch. Set a skillet with enough oil to fry the tortillas in small batches. Once you fried the tortillas strips until they are golden and crispy, set them aside in a paper towel lined plate so it can soak up the excess oil.

Place the chicharron (pork rinds), cheese, halved avocados in separate serving plates. Take the chiles and devein them, remove the seeds and cut into small pieces, set into a separate serving plate.

To serve - take a soup bowl, add enough tortilla strips to fill half of your bowl, a dollop of sour cream, and a small amount of chicharrones, cheese, and avocado. Using a laddle pour the hot broth into the bowl to fill it up.

Enjoy!

Buen Provecho!

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