Recipe: Toasted Corn Soup

Recipe:
Toasted Corn Soup

Serves 4

A Meal Morph using Mexican Shredded Chicken & Broth...
For more tips on this recipe and authentic Mexican home cooking, be sure to read the articles on Mexican Shredded Chicken & Toasted Corn Soup and Mexican Cheeses: The Whole Enchilada.

Ingredients

1/2 medium onion
1 large carrot
1 to 2 ribs celery with leaves
1 large or 2 small green onions
1 large Roma tomato
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 (15-1/4 ounce) can corn, drained and rinsed,
   or use fresh corn if available
3 cups broth from Mexican Shredded Chicken
   (or canned low-salt chicken broth)
1 shredded chicken breast from Mexican Shredded Chicken,
   or other cooked chicken breast, shredded (about 2 cups
   loosely packed meat), bones and skin discarded

Garnishes:
Queso Cotija, (or Parmesan or Romano cheese) grated
Crema Mexicana (optional)

Finely dice the onion and carrot. Separate the leaves from celery. Coarsely chop the celery leaves and set aside. Finely dice the celery ribs. Chop the green onion (white and green parts). Dice the tomato. Set aside all the chopped vegetables separately.

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan (preferably nonstick) on high heat. Add the onion and carrot and cook until the onion starts to soften. Stir in the diced celery ribs and corn. Let the mixture cook on high until the pieces start to brown, then stir and continue to brown the vegetables, stirring only when the bottom pieces start to turn color (this should take about 10 minutes).

Stir in the chicken broth and heat just until boiling. Add the shredded chicken and heat just until the chicken is warmed through.

Ladle the soup into bowls. Top each bowl with a mound of the reserved chopped tomato, green onion, and celery leaves. Garnish with a generous sprinkling of queso cotija on top. Serve hot with bolillos or other rolls, warm tortillas or tortilla chips on the side.

Variation:
Add a bit of tang to the soup by serving some Crema Mexicana or sour cream on the side.