Tortilla soup

So, not sure if you could've guessed from the shopping list, but I was making soup. And not just any kind of soup, but tortilla soup. It has a lot of the same ingredients you'd find if you were making tacos, or, in fact, tortillas. (I understand that 'tortilla' is usually a flatbread type food, but often, like in this case, understood to mean the dish)

I never was big on soups. They just weren't my thing. Then I married a Chinese man and ended up having soup a lot more often. It did take me quite a while to get used to it, but I do nowadays enjoy a variety of soups, such as Chinese hot and sour soup (it's like lemon, vinegar and chilli, which in my books equals salad dressing), French onion soup (hot melted cheese) and this tortilla soup.

Without further ado, here's what you need:

Chicken broth, can of diced tomatoes, can of corn, garlic, onion, chillies, avocado, lime, cilantro (or coriander), and tortilla chips. Additionally (not in the photo) meat of choice, I used chicken and grated cheese.

Start by cooking the meat. I sliced the chicken in to small pieces. Generally I use 1 chicken breast for two people.   You could use any meat you want, or, if vegetarian/vegan is your thing, just skip the meat. It'll be great without it too. (also, obviously, use veggie broth instead of chicken) I fried the chicken (do this in the pot you plan on making the soup, no point to have extra dishes) and added a bit of salt and pepper. Once done, set the chicken aside to wait.

Then cook the chopped onion until soft. Couple of minutes should do. Throw in garlic, cook a little longer.

Add broth and tomatoes. I used the whole thing of broth and half the tomatoes. That's 4 cups of broth and maybe 1 cup of tomato. This is not a science! If you like a lot of liquid in the soup, add more broth. Dig more tomatoes? add the entire can! Ultimately, the good thing here is that if you added too much tomato, you can always add water. If you think there's too much liquid, don't worry. There's a ton of stuff going into it soon.

Bring the mix to a boil, reduce the heat and let simmer for about 10 minutes. While that's happening start prepping the other ingredients. Chop up the chilli and cilantro (one chilli and about a handful of cilantro). Cut the Avocado into cubes (or smaller pieces, who cares what shape they are)

After 10 minutes, throw in the Chilli, can of corn and the cilantro. Give it few minutes and add the chicken.

Soup is done!

Additional step to look extra fancy-pants: Assembly!

In a bowl put in some corn/tortilla chips and some crated cheese. Ladle the soup on top (yeah, on the chips and cheese. Trust me!). Put in some avocado chunks and a few leaves of cilantro. Serve with a lime wedge or a few.