VeganMoFo Day 30 - Mexi Soup

This soup is another from the McDougall Made Easy DVD. It comes together in the time it takes to open a few cans and heat up. When desperate, I've put the ingredients together, ladled the soup into bowls and either served as-is or nuked for a minute in the microwave. 

Mexi Soup

Servings: 6
Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes

1 onion, chopped
1/3 cup water
1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 15 ounce can kidney beans, undrained
1 15 ounce can garbanzo beans, undrained
1 16 ounce can creamed corn
1 cup vegetable broth
1 8 ounce can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon taco seasoning
several dashes Tabasco sauce


Place the onion and water in a large soup pot. Cook, stirring occasionally for 4 minutes.
Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 25 minutes.

RECIPE HINT: Taco seasoning mixes can be found in most supermarkets and natural food stores. The brand I use is Bearitos. This is a spicy, thick soup, hearty enough for a
filling dinner with a loaf of bread.

My changes:
I never cook up the onion first. In 4 minutes it's barely warm, so why bother?

I use Pomi strained tomatoes instead of crushed.

My canned & packaged products are always the no-salt added versions. If I don't do that, this soup would put 5 pounds on me by morning.

Instead of broth I make up a cup using no-salt bouillon/broth powder. On this particular day I used a tablespoon of Dr. Fuhrman's VegiZest powder.

And as I mentioned in another post, instead of Bearitos brand taco mix I traditionally use Old El Paso fajita mix, but this week none of the local stores I go to had any, so I used a tablespoon of this homemade version, substituting Bryanna's broth powder (minus the salt and hemp powder) instead of chicken cube. It tastes pretty close to the Old El Paso brand fajita mix.

Fajita Seasoning Mix
Linda Larsen
Make your own fajita seasoning mix using this easy recipe. If you are simply going to rub the mixture on steak, chicken, pork, or seafood before grilling it, omit the cornstarch.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

    3 Tbsp. cornstarch
    2 Tbsp. chili powder
    1 Tbsp. salt
    1 Tbsp. paprika
    1 Tbsp. sugar
    2-1/2 tsp. crushed chicken bouillon cube
    1-1/2 tsp. onion powder
    1/2 tsp. garlic powder
    1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
    1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
    1/2 tsp. cumin

Preparation:
Combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl. Pour into small glass or plastic container, seal tightly and store in a cool, dry place. Makes the equivalent of 3 packets of commercial or purchased Fajita Seasoning Mix


Bryanna Clark Grogan's Vegan Chicken Broth Power 

Use 1 level tablespoon per cup of water.

1 and 1/3 cups nutritional yeast flakes
3 Tbs onion powder
2½ Tbs sea salt
2½ tsp. garlic granules or powder
1 Tbs soy, rice or hemp protein powder (kind you's use in a smoothie- just make sure it's not sweet or flavored)
1 Tbs vegan sugar
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp finely crumbled dried sage (NOT powdered)
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp turmeric
Blend in a dry blender:
Store in an airtight container
Yield: 1 1/2 cups


Lastly, I omitted the Tabasco sauce from the soup. The spiciness from the fajita mix is enough, and even my sriracha-loving husband says it's perfect the way it is.

During the winter months we usually have this soup every other week, rotating with other soups from the McDougall Made Easy and McDougall Made Irresistable DVD's. Most of those recipes have made it into the McDougall newsletter's "favorites" issues, and I've covered them either in the past or this month. I was surprised to see I never posted this one before, because it is one of our family's favorites. Now it is.

And that's the end of VeganMoFo 2014. But keep checking back - I'll be making up some recipes from Ann and Jane Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook pretty soon. I've been sitting on this for almost a month now and itching to try a few recipes from it.