Tex-Mex slow cooker soup recipe

Tortilla soup won't likely be a familiar idea to you unless you've been Stateside but it's really easy and if you like Tex-Mex food, you should try it. Old El Paso don't do a kit for this unfortunately but I'll talk you through it and it'll be fine. Promise! It's also potentially pretty healthy, like a Mexican Minestrone with lots of veggies in it and you can free-style it and clear out the fridge.

Doesn't it look pretty?

Ingredients for 5 (that's just the way it worked out)

750 ml (3 cups) chicken stock
About 400g cooked chicken (that's about a cereal bowl full or half a medium roast chicken)
1/2 onion, chopped
300g/1 tin or 1 cup sweet corn - I used mine from frozen
2 spring onions/scallions
2 tins chopped tomatoes
small bowl of chopped veggies - I used celery, carrot, peppers (green and yellow) and they were all somewhat past their best.
4 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp chilli flakes
1/2 tsp cayenne
1 tsp cumin
salt to taste

To serve - all optional extras

Chopped coriander/cilantro
Tortilla chips
Corn tortillas
sour cream
avocado slices, doused in lime juice to prevent browning
grated cheddar cheese

Put all of the ingredients in your pot and cook on High for 4 Hours or Low for 8. The main thing is to see that your carrots are soft. Mine weren't quite perfect after 4 hours, but I was hungry so ignored that fact!

To serve - the healthy way. Cut corn tortillas into strips and lay into the bottom of your bowl with the ends hanging over the edge. Pour the soup over the top and garnish with preferred additions.

The less healthy way - put a handful of tortilla chips of your preferred flavour in the bottom of the bowl and ladle soup over the top. Top with sour cream, cheddar and avocado.

Verdict:

This came close to knocking my favourite soup off it's top spot. There was so much interesting stuff going on and the flavours were all zippy and fresh. I was suspicious that the tortilla chips would go all soggy and they did, but it was fine. They seemed happy that way. This is probably what I will do with leftover roast chicken in future. I couldn't believe how easy it was. It was either quite spicy this way or my hand slipped with the chilli flakes but you might want to adjust down if you don't like your food too hot. It will still be great.