Sunday SlowSoupers #2 – Mexican Shrimp Soup
It is week 2 of the Sunday Slow Soupers. A group soup cook-a-long on Slow Travel. This week’s host is Jerry from Jerry’s Thoughts, Musings and Rants.
Jerry’s original recipe originally called for turkey and turkey broth. We went out of town and shared Thanksgiving with our good friends in San Francisco. I didn’t have left over turkey. Plus G doesn’t eat meat. The soup sounded wonderful – roasted corn and tomatoes spiced with smokey chiles and accented with avocado. But what could I use instead of turkey? Shrimp!
Shrimp pairs well with corn, avocado and lime. I thought it would work. And it did.
I used about a dozen medium prawns instead of the 3/4 cup of turkey and vegetable broth instead of turkey broth. George’s first words – “Ooh… this is good!”.
Mexican Shrimp Soup
(Serves 4)
Ingredients
1-1/2 cups fresh corn niblets (frozen will work but thaw first)
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 tsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped green onions, white and light-green parts only; reserve dark-green ends to garnish
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp finely chopped, canned chipotle peppers
4 cups vegetable broth
12 shelled and deveined medium prawns (save shells)
1 ripe avocado
2 limes
2 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tbsp finely chopped, fresh cilantro
Instructions
Heat stock and shrimp shells over med-high heat and bring to a boil. Remove shells.
In a large pot, dry-roast corn over high heat until lightly charred. Set aside in a small bowl. Repeat process with tomatoes. (note: watch the corn – the sugar will burn the pan easily).
Using same pot, saute onion, garlic and chipotle peppers in vegetable oil over medium heat. Add stock and bring almost to a boil then reduce heat to simmer.
Roughly chop tomatoes and add (with juices) to pot along with corn. Add prawns and cook until the prawns turn pink and are firm. Season with salt and pepper.
In a small bowl, mash avocado with a fork. Mix in juice from 1/2 of one lime and mayonnaise. Stir in chopped cilantro and season with salt and pepper.
Serve soup topped with avocado cream, finely chopped dark-green onions and a wedge of lime.
NOTE: Jerry roasts the cherry tomatoes in the oven for about 20 – 30 minutes at 350 rather than pan roast them. I think that might be easier in the future.
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Ooh… that soup does look good! I want you to know that for a moment, I panicked thinking it was Sunday!
I saw this recipe on the Food forum and wanted to make it with chicken since I don’t like turkey. Never thought of using shrimp but now I think that it is a perfect match for the ingredients. I’ll be making it soon for my soup lover husband.
I was rushing to get this in before Sunday! Sorry to give you a fright.
Maria, a couple of additional notes – My shrimp were already deveined and shelled so I only added the tails to give the broth a little shrimp flavor. This might not be necessary since it got a lot of shrimp flavor by cooking the shrimp. So use your judgement as far as adding the shells and for how long.
Also, it might be good to cut the prawns in half to make them more bit sized. I ended up cutting them up when I was eating the soup.
I hope you and your husband enjoys it.
Reporting back on the soup: made it yesterday and there’s nothing left. My family loved it! I followed your suggestion and cut the shrimp in half. I skipped making the avocado cream because we like avocado in its own and not mixed with other ingredients. This recipe is definitely a keeper. Thanks!
Marta’s reply: Thanks for reporting back. I’m glad to hear that you liked the variation.