Let them eat soup

Sopa de Lima de Ami (Lime Soup of mine)

For four soup eaters use this much stuff:

At least 1 good full cup of freshly squeezed lime juice—more is better than less—it usually takes at least one dozen limes. You can try and buy the pre-squeezed stuff but ...just don't, cuz you'll miss it, and it's important.

14 medium firm/soft ROMA tomatoes (chopped in small cubes) Any tomato, ok, but the Roma best for it’s meatiness (as opposed to mushiness).

1 sweet yellow onion or less to taste (chopped smallish)

2 FRESH Serano chilies (chopped as tiny as possible) or less, or more. More chili more hot.

3 cloves of garlic or two small pre-chopped spoonfuls

1 Large Can (about eight cups) of Chicken Broth (can be replaced with veggie broth for veggies)

1 tsp. Cumin (to taste, maybe more, maybe less, depends).

4 generous pinches of Mexican Oregeno (crush in palms as you add it to pot)

2 small pinches of nutmeg (to taste)

1 wheel of coteja (pronounced co-tay-ha) for crumbling into soup when served (can be substituted with feta or goat cheese, any white crumbly salty cheese but blue)

1 large bag of BLUE cornchips (best) or RED (also good) White cornchips, or all three for a festive soup.

Do it like this:

First, prep-work: Chop all the choppables up and get them ready, put it into separate bowls and have it ready to add to the pot. The limes will take the longest, and the soup itself cooks pretty quickly so make sure you have them mostly squeezed before you start actually cooking the soup. When squeezed, set it aside, in the fridge is good.

Now: Take some extra virgin olive oil and drizzle a goodly amount into a deep soup pot (big enough to hold ALL the stuff that’s coming) heating up to a medium heat, throw in the garlic, onion, spices and chopped Serrano chilies. Before you add the tomatoes, which come next, make sure your whole kitchen smells like the chilies and the spices and the onions have softened and turned almost transparent. If you put your face in the pot, your eyes should sting.

Next: Throw in the chopped tomatoes and stir the onion, garlic, chilies and spices into the tomatoes. Cover and let the tomatoes reduce and soften juicily—not long—about 7 minutes max; when the tomatoes have softened a little and released much of their juices, pour in the chicken (or veggie) broth. You’ll pour in about 5 to 8 cups…depending on how wet or chunky you’d like your soup. Stir, cover and let sit on low heat for about 10 minutes. Taste it when you open the pot. Need more nutmeg? More oregano? More cumin? Add it now and stir. Let sit a bit. Now you add the lime juice.

Lastly: Stir the lime juice in, just a little, don’t mix it too much. Then turn off the heat and let it sit for about 5 minutes before serving. When serving, ladle desired portion into bowl, crumble a good sized palmful of Coteja cheese in the middle and top with a handful of corn tortilla chips. Ready to eat!!

Buena Mangia!!