Mexican Tomato Soup
Hot cumin-tomato broth, cold avocado slices on top. That temperature gap turns a simple soup into something worth sitting down for.
One pot, 20 minutes, 523 kcal, and 17 grams of fiber from plants doing all the work.
Ingredients
- kidney beans 3 ounces
- corn 2 ounces
- onion 0.5
- garlic 1 clove
- bell pepper 1
- olive oil 1 tablespoon
- tomato paste 1 tablespoon
- ground cumin 0.5 teaspoon
- paprika (ground spice) 0.5 teaspoon
- diced tomatoes 8 ounces
- vegetable bouillon 1 cube
- water 0.75 cup
- avocado 0.5
Method
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Rinse the kidney beans and corn in a colander with cold water. Chop the onion. Crush the garlic clove. Dice the bell pepper.
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Heat the oil in a soup pot and sauté the onion for 2 minutes. Then add the garlic, diced bell pepper, tomato paste, cumin and paprika powder and cook for another minute. Next, add the diced tomatoes, bouillon and water to the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and let it simmer gently for 10 minutes. After 5 minutes, stir the corn and kidney beans into the soup. Season with pepper.
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Slice the avocado flesh.
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Pour the soup into a bowl and serve with avocado slices.
Give the tomato paste the full minute in hot oil before adding the diced tomatoes and liquid. Tomato paste concentrates lycopene, and researchers found your body absorbs 2.5 times more lycopene from paste than from the same weight of fresh tomato. That minute in hot fat dissolves it into a form your gut can use.
Why This Works
Behind this recipe
Why does the recipe use both tomato paste and diced tomatoes?
Tomato paste is concentrated, roughly five times denser in lycopene per gram than a fresh tomato. Researchers found that your body absorbs 2.5 times more lycopene from tomato paste than from the same weight of raw tomato. The diced tomatoes add body, liquid, and texture. Together you get the concentrated hit from the paste and the chunky substance from the dice.
What does sautéing the garlic and onion before adding the beans do?
Beyond flavor, garlic and onion release sulfur compounds when heated in oil. Those compounds keep iron from the kidney beans dissolved and absorbable, counteracting the phytates in the beans that would otherwise lock the iron away. Researchers confirmed this mechanism made iron from a lentil-and-rice meal significantly more available for absorption.
Is 16 grams of protein enough for dinner?
This bowl delivers 16 grams of protein from the kidney beans, corn, and avocado combined. Whether that covers dinner depends on your daily target. Someone eating 120 grams across four meals needs about 30 per sitting. If that is you, adding grilled chicken, a boiled egg, or a side of Greek yogurt closes the gap without changing the soup.
Can I make this ahead and reheat it?
The soup base keeps well for 2 to 3 days in the fridge, and the flavors deepen overnight. The corn and beans hold their texture on reheating. Slice the avocado fresh when you serve it. It does not hold up to storage.
