Tortilla Soup

Deliciousness in a bowl! Traditionally tortilla soup usually has chicken or pork involved in the preparation at some point. However, it's pretty straightforward to create a vegetarian version, and with all the tastes going on, it would take a particularly picky carnivore to actually notice that anything was 'missing'. There are so many recipes for tortilla soup out there, with the exception of the tortillas (the hint's in the name) and probably the avocado all other ingredients are variable. The addition of ancho chilli gives the soup a lovely deep red colour and an earthy flavour, the chipotle adds smokiness and a little heat.
Before I go on, I should probably say something about my measuring system, or lack of it. Any volumes mentioned in my recipes are approximations. If you use a little more or a little less nothing bad is going to happen. Same with the spices, it's not an exact science...

What you'll need:
500ml vegetable stock
500ml passata or canned tomatoes 
1 onion chopped finely
3 or 4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
Oregano
Cumin
Smoked paprika
1 large dried ancho chilli
1 dried chipotle chilli 

Toppings:
1 handful of coriander chopped
1 large ripe avocado
2 fresh corn tortillas*
1 small red onion
Black olives (optional)
1/2 cup of fresh, frozen or canned sweetcorn (optional)
Grated cheese (optional) 
Sour cream (optional) 

To make the soup
1. First off, soak the ancho and chipotle chillies in boiling water for around an hour to soften. Drain (reserving approximately 1 tablespoonful of the liquid) remove the seeds and blend into a paste. Keep to one side
2.  Fry the onion and garlic in olive oil (or a vegetable oil of your choice) until soft
3. Now add the chilli paste, dried herbs and spices and stir a little longer
4. Pour in the tomatoes and vegetable stock, reduce the heat, put a lid on the pan and simmer for 40 minutes 

Meanwhile... to prepare the toppings. These can be put in separate bowls so everyone can help themselves to a little of what they fancy.

5. Cut the tortillas into strips 1cm (ish) wide and around 4cm long, and fry in vegetable oil until crispy. Drain on kitchen paper and leave to one side
6. Using the same oil, toss in the sweetcorn kernels and fry until just starting to go crispy. As an alternative (a tastier but time-consuming alternative), you could roast whole sweetcorn cobs and slice off the kernels 
7. Peel and de-stone the avocado and either slice or chop into rough chunks
8. Slice the olives and red onion finely

To serve:
First add some of the fried tortilla strips to the bottom of the serving bowls and some avocado chunks. Sprinkle in some grated cheese if you want at this stage as well.
Pour in the soup and garnish with more fried tortilla strips and avocado. The additional toppings can be added as desired.

*Note: If you can't get fresh corn tortillas don't substitute with wheat tortillas because you wont get the same taste or texture. You could add some tortilla chips as an alternative, you wont get the same texture but it's better than nothing!