Not Quite Raw

One of the blogs I like to read is The Fitnesstista.  She is perky, enjoys food, and puts lots of pictures on her blog.  The past few weeks have been really interesting because she is taking a cooking class at 105 Degrees, which is a fancy shmancy raw food restaurant.  Some of the food looks absolutely fabulous.  Anyway, Gina’s blog probably led me to this blog, which I also really enjoy.  Gena is more of a raw food eater than Gina.  But what I like about both is that they don’t try to force their way of eating on you.  They just make it seem so great that you WANT to try it.  In fact, this Gena had a recipe on there last night that was cooked and I tried it–fabulous.  Why haven’t I tried roasting carrots before?  I had actually thought of it, but I liked her idea of cutting them up like ‘fries.’  What can I say, old habits die hard!  (BTW, if you are completely confused, just visit both blogs.  They are worthy.)

Anyway, I was really attracted to this Gena’s recipe for ‘Raw Tortilla Soup.’ Now, I know I was attracted to it because she had a great picture on there, and also because that used to be one of my most favorite soups to eat at a restaurant that I don’t go to anymore.  But I was also REALLY attracted to the idea of just throwing a bunch of stuff in my blender and making soup.  (I know, this is nothing new, I guess.  I’m just slow coming to the soup party.)  So last night, even though I was done eating, I felt like doing this.  And of course, I had to make a few minor substitutions because I didn’t have everything.  It tasted okay, but well, um, raw.  There was also something missing, which I couldn’t figure out.  So I just threw the whole batch in a pan in the frig. and thought I would cook it and doctor it a bit today.

It was delicious!… I added quite a bit more cumin, a little chili powder, and then in looking at the recipe again, realized I had left the garlic out.  So I added some of that.  I really didn’t cook it that long.  Brought it to simmer, and probably kept it at simmer for 5-10 minutes while I adjusted the ingredients.  I also realized that the tortilla soup I loved so much was Chicken tortilla, so I thawed a bit of cooked chicken and added it to the bowl I was going to eat.  I thought this made 4 servings of a little more than 1 cup each.  I didn’t add chicken to the other 3 servings, so I can have them however I want.  I might use chicken broth instead of water the next time I make it.  I also noticed there was no onion in the recipe.  Don’t know if this was on purpose or because Gena does not eat onion.  The other substitutions I made were 2 fresh tomatoes for the sundried tomatoes, and summer squash for the celery.

THEN, I tried to make my own tortilla strips to put on top of the soup.  EXCELLENT, if I do say so myself.  I found some new tortillas at Trader Joe’s that were whole wheat/corn, and had 5 grams of fiber per tortilla.  I don’t really like the flavor of those La Tortilla Factory very high fiber tortillas, so I was hoping the addition of corn would be what I was looking for.  YES!  I just sprayed oil on each side of the tortilla, added sea salt to one side, and baked for 5 minutes at 425 degrees.  Yummy!  40 calories for 1/4 of the tortilla, which was just the right amount for this bowl of soup.  Topped with the tortilla strips, avocado, and a few tomato chunks.  I barely remembered to snap a photo before digging in to it!