Mexican Monday: Sopa de Fideos

How was your Monday? Good I hope. Mine was full of email and spring cleaning. But both went swimmingly well. When I was chatting with Brandi today we got on the topic of what we keep in our respective pantries. I sent her a few pictures of mine which lead to our discussing dinner. What else do food friends talk about? LOL. The conversation always has a food component at some point. When she said she was going to make taco soup I asked what I should make. She quickly replied “Sopa de Fideos” after seeing the can of hominy in my pantry. Since this is Monday and my friend Heather almost always does Mexican Monday I knew this was meant to be. That is how dinner came about tonight.

I am sure you all know me well enough by now to realize I wasn’t going to make it traditional and that it was going to be healthy. Sopa de fideoas translates into soup with noodles. So I went with that concept. Traditionally it has a tomato component as well, still good. But then I went left. I decided to make the soup a one dish meal (with a salad of course). For protein I added black beans and a few additional tweaks. Here is what I did:

Sopa de Fideos
serves 4 as a meal

Soup Ingredients:

½ cup black beans (dry) or sub 15 ounce can drained
Water to cover the dry beans by at least an inch
2 medium onions, peeled and finely diced
10 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced
28 ounces diced tomatoes
15 ounce can hominy
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon oregano, dried
1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
2 cups of water (so the pasta has enough room to swim in the soup)
4 ounces whole wheat spaghetti, broken into 1 inch lengths

Garnish ingredients:

1 avocado, diced
2 lime, zested and juiced
Tofu sour cream, if desired (which I make without oil now but it is otherwise the same)
Fresh cilantro, if desired
½ red bell pepper, finely diced, if desired

Directions:

If you are using the dry beans cook them in water with the onion, garlic and spices until the beans are tender. The exact time will depend on the age of the dried beans. I did not soak mine and they were tender in an hour today.

If you are using canned beans cooked the onions and garlic in a cup or so of water until it is tender then proceed.

Add the remaining ingredients, except the pasta and garnish and bring the base to a boil. Now add the pasta and cook until it is tender (maybe 8 minutes). Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as desired.

Serve with avocado, lime zest, lime juice, tofu sour cream and or cilantro. I think the lime is essential but the other garnish ingredients can be omitted if you don’t have them on hand.

Nutritional Information: (includes the avocado and lime)

Amount Per Serving

Calories - 354.94
Calories From Fat (23%) - 81.29

Total Fat - 9.65g
Saturated Fat - 1.2g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 242.28mg
Potassium - 994.57mg
Total Carbohydrates - 61.39g
Fiber - 14.94g
Sugar - 10.74g
Protein - 11.43g
Comments:

This was a very quick meal to toss together. It also came out of my pantry with only minimal fresh ingredients. It reminds me of chili only less dense. I think this would be a great college meal. This would work well in a crock pot or rice cooker.

Mexican Food Classic Ingredients:

Matt (Doc Dufresne) asked me a while ago what things I keep in mind when I am creating dishes. Each country has its own foods that it gravitates toward. For Mexican food they are as follows:

Avocado
Beans
Chiles
Chocolate
Cilantro
Cinnamon
Corn
Cumin
Epazote (herb)
Garlic
Lime
Peppers
Rice
Scallions
Tomatoes
Vanilla

When I am creating dishes I try to stay fairly true to the foods the country would use. In this case cinnamon and vanilla would be weird so I left those out. But any of the other foods would have worked great in this dish. I hope that gives you some things to play around with when you are making your next “Mexican inspired” dish.

Unrelated note:

Today started on a very cold note. After reaching well into the 80’s last week this morning started at 39 degrees. The weather in May is always so unpredictable. Sandal weather one day, coat weather the next. I will be happy when Mother Nature makes up her mind that we are going to stay warm.

More purging happened today at my house. I have to say it really feels good to rid of things once you get started. Now the trick will be not to buy more things to fill up the empty spaces. Easier said than done I assure you. ;-)

I need to go clean up my kitchen and spend a little time with Dan. I will chat with you all tomorrow. Have a great evening.