Tortilla soup a-la-Slee

The first time I had tortilla soup was in Mexico on a family trip. We had just arrived at our hotel Baja Mar and were starving from the long roadtrip (we drove from home in Los Angeles). We ate at the hotel restaurant, and my mom ordered the tortilla soup. It was in one word, magical. We still reminisce about that tortilla soup to this day, and I think I've told Fernando about it a million times too, but I never tried to reproduce it for fear of disappointment.

A few months ago, Fernando and I decided to try out "vegan-before-6", which means we followed a vegan diet until 6pm when all bets were off, and I would go nuts on the dairy. For a while though, we were able to cut down on the meat and dairy, and this is one of the recipes that came out of that time we relied on beans and lots of spices. It's not as magical as the one that started it all, but it's pretty damn good.

Ingredients: 

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp of olive oil
• 2 tsp of cumin
• 1 tbsp of paprika
• 1 tsp of chili powder
• 6 fresh tomatoes, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced 
• 2 cups of beef broth 
• 1 chipotle pepper + 3 tbsp of sauce 
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• dash of salt
• 1 tbsp of brown sugar
• 1.5 tbsp of tomato paste
• a large dollop of black refried beans (optional)
• a handful of blue corn fritos and sliced avocado to garnish (optional)

Steps: 

1. In a large soup pot, sautee the onion and green pepper in olive oil until softened. Then add the garlic. 
2. Mix in the spice blend until aromatic. 
3. Add in the copped fresh tomatoes and cook off some of the liquid. 
4. Pour in the beef broth and mix well. Simmer over medium-high heat. 
5. Add the tomato paste and chipotle pepper and sauce to the pot. 
6. Add salt to taste and the brown sugar. 
7. Puree the soup and add a dollop of refried beans for protein. 
8. Garnish with blue corn fritos and avocado slices.