Food Glorious Food

It’s the first week of school and we always come home so tired as we get back to the school routine. We had such a lovely holiday with trips to Newcastle and Cardiff, but now is the time to get back to routine, early mornings and schedules. No more late nights watching Law and Order DVDs to compare and contrast the British episodes with the American ones (yes we are that sad) with a long lie in the next day. Because we both know that we’ll be shattered this week I always plan easy peasy meals that are good and nutritious but are a snap to prepare. Tonight was Salsa Corn Soup because it relies on store cupboard and freezer ingredients.

Salsa Corn Soup

1 onion, chopped

Some garlic--we like lots

1 red pepper, chopped

2 ribs celery, chopped

1 tin black beans, drained and rinsed

2 cups frozen corn

1 jar your favourite salsa

2 ½ cups vegetable stock

Some red pepper flakes or jalapenos or whatever

Juice of one lime

Some fresh coriander (cilantro for all my American peeps) if you have it

Cook the onions, garlic and peppers in a wee bit of oil until softened. Add the rest of the ingredients except the lime juice. Bring to the boils then simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the lime juice. That’s it! Sprinkle on the coriander and you’re good to go. We also like to add some plain soy yoghurt that has some lime juice squeezed in to make it tangy like sour cream but whatever floats your boat. This soup can be on the table in 30 minutes. It makes enough for 2 and would be good with some garlic bread or olive oil dippin’ bread or whatever. We ate salad because it was there and there was no bread in the house.

A word about salsa. Yum. That’s a word about salsa. No seriously, we love salsa. Particularly M&S roasted pepper salsa. Even though M&S is kind of a posh shop for upper middle class people their salsa is the best. And only 99p a jar not too outrageous. But wait! In the summer they often run specials that are Buy One Get One Free or Buy One Get One Half Off and this is when we stock up. In the summer I can have a whole larder full of salsa. This was my last jar from the summer stash so I’ll need to get a few more. It’s great in soup or over walnut meat tacos. Salsa is so yum anytime, anywhere. It is a fiesta in your mouth (I can’t believe I just said that)

The other thing I like about M&S salsa is that the lid is just silver and doesn’t sport words like SPICY SALSA on top making it ideal for reuse. You can soak the label off and use it to hold all sorts of kitchen cosmetics. They are even pretty enough to give away as gifts with a bit o’ ribbon and some chocolate sugar body scrub. Oh yeah.

Enjoy!