Texan Lizzy Hodcroft is bringing a taste of her roots to the region with her company, The Sweet Beet. You’ll find Lizzy selling tacos, nachos and wraps at street food events, or why not buy her homemade jams and jellies online? The Sweet Beet Instagram.
Ingredients
Soup
8 plum tomatoes
4 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium-size yellow onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 teaspoons chilli powder
2 teaspoons cumin
4 cups chicken stock
1 dried ancho chilli pepper (optional)
1 can peeled tomatoes
1 teaspoon maple bacon jam
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 cooked and shredded chicken breasts (or any left-over meat from Christmas Day)
3 ears of corn
Garnish
2 ripe avocados, peeled and sliced
Tortilla chips
2 plum tomatoes, diced
3 tablespoon coriander, chopped
100g shredded cheddar
1 teaspoon Habanero Lime Jelly
Sour cream (optional)
Method
Preheat oven to 190C. Slice tomatoes in half. Spread 1 teaspoon of olive oil on a baking tray and arrange the tomatoes on top, skin side up. Drizzle the tomatoes with another 1 teaspoon of oil. Roast the tomatoes for 25 to 30 minutes until the skins wrinkle and the tomatoes are slightly brown around the edges.
Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in a large soup or stock pot over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and bell pepper and sauté for about 5 minutes – until the vegetables become soft. Stir in the chilli powder and cumin and cook for 1 minute. Add the chicken stock and ancho chilli. Bring to the boil over a medium-high heat, then cover and decrease the heat to simmer for around 15 minutes until the ancho chilli softens.
Remove the chilli from the soup, cut off the stem and discard, then dice the rest (leaving the seeds in if you want a spicier soup) adding it to your canned tomatoes. Then add these, the roasted tomatoes and maple bacon jam into a food processor. Puree for one minute. Transfer the mixture to the soup, cover, and continue simmering for 1 hour. Add salt and pepper to taste, along with the cooked chicken.
With the corn, cut the kernels from the cobs, add the corn to the soup and simmer for 5 minutes.
To garnish the soup: Ladle the soup into medium bowls. Lean 3 to 4 slices of avocado against the edges of each bowl, partially sticking out from the soup. Arrange the tortilla chips in a similar way. Sprinkle each bowl with a handful of diced tomatoes, some coriander and cheese. Then top with a spoonful of sour cream and Habanero Lime Jelly.
