South American Soup

This is my take on a soup I had in Costa Rica which was so full of flavour, I had to re-create it when I got home. I've actually been trying to prefect this soup for over a year now and I think I have it down now. If you like a soup with a bit of a kick, chunky vegetables, and spices this is the soup for you. 

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 Carrots
• 1 Onion
• 3 Cloves of garlic 
• 1 Sweet potato
• Knob of ginger
• 1tsp Chilli powder
• 2 tsp Paprika
• 1 Tin of plum tomatoes 
• 1 tbsp Rapeseed oil 
• 1 Tin of butter beans 
• Splash of tabasco (optional )
• 1 Organic low salt chicken stock cube (or homemade stock)
• 95g Chorizo

1. Finely chop the onion, garlic and ginger and add to a pan with 1tbsp of Rapeseed oil. Sweat the onions, garlic and ginger until they are all soft. 

2. Add 1 tsp of chilli powder and 2 tsp of Paprika to the pan and stir well. 

3. Chop the carrots and sweet potato into edible chunks,  add them to the pan and mix well. Allow them to cook for 3-5 minutes. While they are cooking finely chop the chorizo and stir it in. Allow everything to cook for a further 2 minutes. 

4. Pour in the tin of plum tomatoes, I always then add water to the tin to get all the tomato goodness out and to add water to the soup so the vegetables and the chorizo are covered but not drowning in liquid. Then add the stock cube (or homemade stock) and seasoning, stir the soup, cover the pan and let it simmer on a medium heat for 10-15 minutes. 

5. Once all the vegetables have cooked, add the butter beans and cook for a further 10 minutes. The soup should now be nice and thick, taste to make sure the seasoning is how you like it and enjoy! 

I usually make this soup quite spicy but I always add a tablespoon of greek yoghurt on top to take the edge off a bit. Also, for extra crunch adding seeds is a good idea!