Tortilla Soup

Here is another Rachael Ray recipe. (I promise I do more than read her magazine. These are actually the only two recipes I have ever made of hers, but I loved them.)

This is vegetarian, but you could add chunks of chicken or use chicken broth if you want to make it non-vegetarian.

3 poblano chilis
6 corn tortillas, halved then cut into 1/2 inch strips
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt
2 10-ounce boxes of frozen corn
1 red onion chopped
1 1/2 teaspoon minced Garlic
Pepper
4 cups vegetable broth
14.5 ounce can fire-roasted tomatoes
1 avocado chopped
1 lime
Sour cream

1. Preheat the broiler. Broil the poblanos until blackened (approx. 10 minutes). Transfer to a bowl, cover and let cool, seed and chop the poblanos (I made the rest of the soup while the poblanos cooled.)

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a baking sheet, toss the tortilla strips with 1 tablespoon oil an cumin. (To coat the tortilla strips: I like to put the strips, oil, and cumin in a ziploc bag, and shake gently.) Bake until golden (10 minutes); season with salt.

3. In a large, deep skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil over medium-high heat. Add the corn and cook until charred at the edges (10-15 minutes). Add the onion and garlic. Season with salt and pepper, and cook until the onion is softened. Stir in broth, tomatoes, and poblanos. (At this point I transferred everything to the crock pot, so it would be warm when we got home from dance. If you are going to serve it immediately, you can just leave it in the pan. Make sure it is a deep pan!)

5. Top the soup with the tortilla strips, avocado, sour cream, and a squeeze of lime.)

Enjoy!

**You can use store bought tortilla chips if you don't want to make your own, but these are very tasty.

**This is pretty spicy. I would think you could use 2 peppers to make it less spicy.