on the menu: mexican vegetable soup with lime and avocado

This week's recipe is quite exciting for me - it's the first on the menu post that I cooked and photographed. I wanted to kick it off with my go-to soup recipe. My family has been making it for years and it instantly makes me feel like I'm living back in Mexico City. Hope all of you enjoy it as much as I do!

Bon appétit! 

Mexican Vegetable Soup with Lime and Avocado
Serves four to six.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon light olive oil
1 medium red onion, finely diced 
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 carrots, cut into 1/4-inch-rounds
8 ounces green beans, tipped and cut into 1 inch pieces
2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
6 cups of chicken stock
1/4 cup cooked hominy
2 teaspoons chilpotle chilies, minced
1 avocado, peeled and sliced
cilantro leaves, for garnish
6 wedges lime

Directions
- Warm the oil in a soup pot, add onion, garlic, oregano, and salt, and cook over medium-low heat until the onion softens.

- Add the carrots, beans, and tomatoes; pour in the heated stock and simmer.

- After 20 minutes add the hominy and then gradually stir in the chilpotle chilies to taste.

- Cook another 5 minutes; then taste for salt.

- Ladle the soup into bowls; garnish with the avocado and cilantro leaves. Serve the lime on the side.

Recipe adapted from The Greens Cook Book // Photo by Caitlin Flemming