Southwestern Soup

This is my favorite soup. I was so excited to share this recipe that I could not wait to take a picture of it. This is a picture of a similar soup, in fact, it's nearly identical to my soup (at least visually). Anyway, I promise to upload a real picture of my soup eventually. :)


At least once a month, I get a crazy craving for green chilies. Every time that happens, I make this soup. Also, I make this soup really spicy (you don't have to), so whenever I have sinus problems or one of us has a cold, I make this soup to encourage drainage and for a general healthy feeling.

I found this recipe years ago on allrecipes.com but I have changed it so much over the years, that I couldn't even find the original recipe again to give it proper credit!

What I like: the spiciness of the soup, the green chilies, the abundance of tomatoes, and the ease of making a visually-beautiful presentation of the soup every time I scoop it into bowls for dinner. It also makes 6-8 servings of soup, which is great for when we are busy with our jobs: I don't cook again for 3 days!

Southwestern Soup
Ingredients:
*1.5 cups of shredded chicken (cooked)
*4 cups of vegetable broth
*1 (28 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
*2 cans (15 ounces each) diced tomatoes
*1 (4 ounce) can of chopped green chilies
*1-2 chipotle peppers, chopped, from a can of chipotles in adobe sauce (next to green chilies at store) (optional)
*a small spoonful of adobe sauce from chipotle can (optional) 
*1 onion, chopped
*1 clove garlic, crushed
*1 tbsp. lime juice
*1 can (15 ounce) of black beans, drained and rinsed *1/2 - 1 tsp. cayenne pepper
*1/2 tsp. cumin
*salt/pepper (to taste)
*1-2 avocado, diced
*cilantro 
*shredded cheddar cheese
*sour cream


Directions:
1) Cook in large soup pan: Chicken, broth, tomatoes, chilies, chipotles (optional), onion, garlic, lime juice, and black beans. Season with spices. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 15-20 minutes. Taste and add more spices or more chipotles as needed. You can also add some shredded cheddar cheese to the soup at this time (optional).
2) Scoop into bowls. Make it look beautiful with a lovely topping-display of shredded cheddar cheese, avocado, sour cream, and a few leaves of cilantro on each bowl of soup.
3) Serve with tortilla chips and enjoy!


Comments:
*Some people don't like chipotles or really spicy soup. If that's you, just leave those peppers out and this soup is barely spicy at all. I, however, love spicy soup so much that I add 3 or more chipotles to this soup and lots of the adobe sauce. Yum!
*The longest part to making this meal is cooking the chicken beforehand. It took me a while to realize that I can save time by buying a rotisserie chicken at the store and use parts of the chicken for this soup. I then use the rest for other soups or meals throughout the week. So if you want to save time, I strongly recommend using one of those already cooked chickens!
*I love cilantro and I used to add extra to the soup as well as putting some on top. However, my husband had a nightmarish cilantro-farm experience as a child and despises the stuff. So now I just add some to the top of the soup, but if you don't have husbands with weird cilantro-phobias, adding extra cilantro to the soup makes it extra good (in my opinion)
*Don't leave out any of the toppings on the soup! The beauty and taste of avocado, cheese, sour cream, etc. is wonderfully balanced with the soup. It is seriously so wonderful to look at AND eat!