Mexican Potato and Corn Soup

Cilantro is something I never liked until about 6-7 years ago. Now I can't get enough of it and love trying recipes that call for it. Tonight's dinner called for a bunch of cilantro so I looked around for some ideas of what to do with the rest. I love having a pot of soup around for the week so I decided on this recipe on epicurious.com. The original recipe calls the soup Southwestern, but to me it tasted almost like the broths in different chicken tortilla soups I have had while visiting Mexico.

The original recipe with my changes noted is below:

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped (I like heat so I used the seeds as well)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 1/2 lb large yellow-fleshed potatoes such as Yukon Gold (about 2)
• 3 1/4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth (26 fl oz) (I used 32 oz of broth
• 1 cup water (I used 4 oz of water)
• 1 (10-oz) package frozen corn (not thawed) (I used about half of this amount)
• 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

• Heat oil in a 5- to 6-quart heavy pot over moderate heat until hot but not smoking, then cook onion, jalapeño, salt, and pepper, stirring occasionally, until onion is pale golden, about 8 minutes.
• Meanwhile, peel potatoes and cut into 1-inch pieces.
• Add broth, water, and potatoes to onion mixture and cover pot, then bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are very tender, 12 to 14 minutes.
• Coarsely mash potatoes in pot with a potato masher. (I don't have one so I used my handheld immersion blender and just quickly pulsed it with fine results)
• Stir in corn and simmer, uncovered, 3 minutes.
• Stir in lime juice, cilantro, and salt to taste.

OH. MY. GOODNESS!! This is my new favorite soup. I kept tasting it as it was cooking and it kept getting better and better. Finally, the addition of the lime juice and cilantro took me right back to the Love Shack in Cabo San Lucas. Now I know the secret ingredients to tortilla soup and will definitely use this broth as a base when I try to make tortilla soup on my own.

If you love Mexican flavors and don't mind a little kick, try this soup!