El Charro Tomato, BroccoSprout, Black Bean and Corn Soup with Crunchy Tortilla Strings

Serves 4

Many ingredients of the Mexican kitchen are charred or dry roasted to bring out the essential flavor. This can be done over a grill and open flame or in a dry heavy skillet or grill pan. Knowing this technique, one can ad lib and use this cooking style with selected ingredients to create your own masterpiece.

A great soup can come together by grilling corn on the cob and then slicing the kernels. Dice some tomatoes and grill or dry roast until just a bit charred. Add some cooked black beans, chicken broth, garlic and lime until just your desired spiciness. Garnish with cilantro sprigs and the piece de resistance... crunchy tortilla strings.

• 1 large ear fresh corn or 1 cup frozen corn
• 1 large tomato
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 (16) ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
• juice of 1 fresh lime
• 3/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1 1/4 cup BroccoSprouts, chopped
• Garnish: Sour Cream (low fat) and Tortilla strings (recipe follows)

In a large saucepan, add all of the ingredients up to and including the cumin. Bring to a boil over high heat and then simmer for 4 minutes. Stir in the BroccoSprouts. Serve in bowls topped with sour cream and tortilla strings.

Crunchy Tortilla Strings

These crunchy airy strips add not only great texture to salads, soups, and salsa-topped dishes, they also become the conversation piece.

4 6-inch flour tortillas

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the tortilla into very thin strips about 1/4-inch thick. Place the strips on a sheet pan. Toss the strips to separate and curl somewhat. Bake for 10-15 minutes, tossing after 6 minutes until golden and crunchy.

This recipe was created by Rita Calvert, Annapolis School of Cooking
Photography: Dean Ray, Ray Studios, Baltimore, Maryland