Cookbook Challenge: Week 34, Soup
Recipe: Spicy tomato soup with chorizo
From: Soups
This week’s Cookbook Challenge theme is “soup”. Last winter I made a lot of soup – pretty much every Sunday for a couple of months – see the Soup Sunday posts. This winter, I’ve barely cooked any soup, most likely because I’m busy cooking up the various themes for the Cookbook Challenge. So I’m glad that soup is one of the themes – it’s like revisiting an old friend!
Yesterday (when I made this soup), I spent a lot of time cooking for next week’s theme – Spanish. Rather a lot, actually – you’ll see what I mean next week! I didn’t have much time left over to do a complicated soup, so I pulled out the Soups cookbook and flicked through it. I decided on this soup because I had left over chorizo (from my Spanish dishes) and because it looked pretty straight forward.
Well, I say it was straight forward, but the recipe has a weird way of cooking the chorizo – they are simmered in water until all the water evaporates and then they are fried in the fat that is left over. Honestly, if I was to do it again, I would just fry the chorizo in a pan and then throw it into a pot with the rest of the ingredients. Seriously, why go to all that kerfuffle? It’s soup! And a rather good soup too, if you like tomato based soups, and you like it spicy. Plus if you need some warming up, it’ll certainly help as it has a decent heat to it.
Stay tuned for a mammoth Cookbook Challenge post for the Spanish theme next week. We ate… boy did we eat! And see previous Cookbook Challenge posts here.
Spicy tomato soup with chorizo
From Soups
500g chorizo sausage
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 onions, halved and sliced
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1-2 small red chillies, seeded and finely chopped
1.5 litres chicken stock
800g tinned chopped tomatoes
Fill a large frying pan with about 3cm of cold water. Add the chorizo sausages and bring to the boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and let the water reduce, turning the sausages occasionally, until all the water evaporates. Allow the sausages to cook in any fat left in the pan for several minutes, or until they are lightly browned. Allow to cool and cut into bite sized pieces.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat and add the onions and garlic. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until they are soft. Stir in the cumin and paprika, chilli, chicken stock, and tomato. Bring to the boil and add the chorizo. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. Check the seasoning – adding salt and pepper to taste – and serve.
penny aka jeroxie
July 11, 2010 @ 9:40 pm
I have leftover chorizo from the Spanish theme as well! Now I know what to do with it… heh
mademoiselle délicieuse
July 11, 2010 @ 10:33 pm
Agree, I'd just fry the chorizo off as well!
Hannah
July 12, 2010 @ 12:02 pm
Um, I think you'll find that simply frying the chorizo will result in this soup turning into a toad. Seriously. You can trust me on this. It's the reverse-fairytale, because you see it's the magical infusing then unfusing (it's a word to me – let it go) of the sausage with water than stops the molecular properties of the water and spices from transmogrifying.
True story.
imasugarjunkie
July 12, 2010 @ 3:16 pm
I have leftover chorizo too! I am looking forward to seeing your Spanish recipes – I lovvveee spanish food!
Iron Chef Shellie
July 14, 2010 @ 2:17 pm
I so have to make this, it sounds amazing. I haven't used enough chorizo this year… time to start making up for it 😉
Agnes
July 14, 2010 @ 10:25 pm
Penny: Hehee, I wonder if everyone bought chorizo for Spanish week?
mademoiselle: I'm always looking for a shortcut for recipes – why make things more complicated than they need to be?
Hannah: OH, is that the reason for it? Well in that case, I better stick to the recipe next time!
imasugarjunkie: oh wait until you see my mega epic Spanish post 😀
Shellie: hehee, there's no time like the present to stop eating more chorizo!
Anh
July 15, 2010 @ 10:56 pm
I love this soup already! 🙂