Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Vegan Cinco de Mayo

vegan cinco de mayo

Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo, so I met Mason on his way home from work for a shopping trip on the bikes. We completely stopped driving for Earth Day and will probably try to keep it going for at least a month, if not the summer. It had been raining on and off all day, but it was really light and made the weather extra nice for riding. We stopped at Fiesta to pick up the makings of a CdM dinner of elotes, guacamole and tortilla soup. Elotes cups are really popular in our neighborhood. You can pick one up on pretty much any corner and sometimes from the paleta bike guys. Of course, they aren't vegan, so we've been thinking about making a vegan version for a while. I don't think that this version was quite right, but I'll keep working on it and post a recipe soon. For now, here's my lazy tortilla soup. It's not fancy or anything, but we like it. Today, I dumped a few cups of cooked quinoa in with the leftovers to stretch it for a few more meals and honestly, I like it a lot more with the quinoa than with the tortillas.

Vegan Tortilla Soup

1 T. olive oil
1 small white onion, finely diced
1 bulb of garlic, minced
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. cayenne
28 oz. can of diced tomatoes
1-2 tsp. sriracha
6 c. veggie stock
juice of 4 limes
salt and pepper to taste

Toppings:
fried/baked tortilla strips or crushed tortilla chips
tons of chopped fresh jalapenos
chopped green onions
sliced avocados

Add 1 T. of olive oil to pan and fry chili powder, cumin, oregano and cayenne for 1 minute. Add onion and garlic (and a bit of water or more oil, as needed) and cook until they begin to soften. Add diced tomatoes and sriracha and cook for another 5 minutes or so. Add veggie stock and salt and simmer for as long as you like (at least 20 minutes). Add lime juice and black pepper just a few minutes before serving. The toppings (especially the jalapenos) really make this soup, so don't skip them.

3 comments:

Joanne said...

I'm curious - what is Cinco de Mayo? How is it celebrated? What is Elotes?
My assumption is that it is some kind of Hispanic or South American celebration based on your food display.

megan said...

Oh, I should have linked to the wiki about it! I always forget that it's much more popular here than other parts of the US. Cinco de Mayo is the celebration of the victory of the Mexican forces over the French in the Battle of Puebla.

Elotes cups are basically cups of corn mixed with a chile-lime mayo based sauce. They sound a little strange, but they are actually pretty tasty. Mas likes them a lot more than I do, though, so I really made them for him.

Joanne said...

Ohhh, Okay thanks!
Living in Canada, we have very little exposure to Mexican traditions although there are plenty of immigrants from Mexico and South America who live here - they are still in the minority here. However, we know a whole lot more about the French traditions, since French is the second national language spoken here and is becoming a mandatory language in many places of employment.

Thanks for the tutorial :)