I love an easy recipe but only if it tastes good. So many times I have been tricked by a recipe toting “big flavor” from “Only a few ingredients.” Well, here is a recipe that is just that AND it tastes great. Oh and it is also one of my favorite things: customizable. So the main recipe is just 5 ingredients plus a few spices. That is it. However, you can have endless amounts of add ons or toppings for the finished soup. The finished soup is bright and comforting without being overtly spicy. (Quite an issue in our home where we want habanero in everything and our daughter would like to not have her face melted off.) So allow everyone to finish the dish however they like! My father, for instance, would not add fresh cilantro (which he pronounces “chillantro.” The irony of which is that he is anything but “chill” if you put cilantro in his food.) You might want it spicy so you could add more sauce at the end or fresh chilies even. This recipe is vegetarian but if you had a meat eater you could have it prepared in a seperate dish. Shredded chicken or chorizo would work well. Another thing I like about this dish is that you start the soup in one pot. You toast the noodles (yeah, that is right. We are going to toast the noodles!) in a separate pan and then add them to the soup pot. Ten minutes later your dinner is on the table. If you are like me and don’t usually toast noodles or rice before cooking then I am very excited for you to experience the difference in flavor. (Just keep an eye on them so they do not burn.) This is also an extremely easy dish to double for entertaining. If entertaining then why not start out with a chips and Marshall’s Haute Sauce selection and a tossed salad. Oh, and margaritas. Always include margaritas. In fact, if you’ll excuse me…. Onto the Fideo Soup with Red Chili Lime Sauce... Ingredients 7 ounce fideo 4 ½ cups vegetable stock ½ cup Red Chili Lime Marshall’s Haute Sauce 1 Onion (finely chopped) 1 ½ tbl Olive Oil 1 ½ tsp smoked paprika 1 ½ tsp ground cumin 1 ½ tsp Mexican Oregano 1 tbsp salt ½ cup diced fresh tomatoes or canned tomatoes Optional toppings Cojita cheese (crumbled) Cilantro Avocado Additional lime wedges on the side Instructions Heat half of the oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook until soft. Around 5 minutes. Add dried spices , Red Chili Lime, tomatoes and stock. In a separate pan add the rest of the oil and heat over medium high heat. Add fideo to the oil and stir to coat. Continue stirring and cooking the fideo until the noodles look light to dark brown. Carefully add the toasted fideo to the sauce mixture. Stir, reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove lid and stir. Serve in bowls with optional topping on the side.
