Hominy Soup

When the high temperature barely breaks zero all I want to eat is soup. I've had it for three of my last four meals, and we're having it again for dinner tonight. For almost as long as I've been home for the holidays I've been craving Mexican food. There's no Chipotle around these parts, I'm saving the carnitas recipe from my new Mexican cookbook for when I get back to Minnesota and can eat the leftovers for days and days, and when my family was in Chicago and ate at a Mexican joint for lunch they chose not to tell me until their food arrived at their table. So this Mexican craving has been going on for well over a week, and the need for soup came just a few days ago when the temperatures plunged.

I was able to satisfy both cravings two days ago when I had chicken tortilla soup for lunch followed by a big bowl of hominy soup for dinner. I'm still looking forward to those carnitas, but now I can wait at least a few more days. The original soup plan was to make Red Posole from 101 Cookbooks, but things changed when some of the ingredients could not be found at the local grocery store and we opted for canned hominy instead of dried hominy that would need to be soaked overnight. We changed things around a bit, adding tomatoes, pinto beans and broth, and the result was a really tasty soup that warmed us up. I had leftovers last night and would eat more of it today were we not planning on making a batch of lentil soup tonight.

28 oz. can diced tomatoes

28 oz. can hominy

15 oz. can black or pinto beans

12 oz. bottle of lager

2 cups vegetable broth

1 medium white onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 bay leaf

1 tbsp oregano

2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp (more or less) cayenne

1. Sauté the onion for a few minutes in a little oil. Add the garlic and the oregano. Sauté for a couple more minutes.

2. Add the tomatoes, the beer and the rest of the spices. Cook for a few minutes.

3. Add the broth and simmer for 20 minutes or so. Add the hominy about 15 minutes before eating and the beans 5-10 minutes before eating.

4. Remove the bay leaf. Serve with some combination of diced avocado, crushed tortilla chips, Mexican cheese, cilantro, and sour cream.

Eat some soup and stay warm!