Chorizo, Chilli, Tomato & Orzo soup
Chorizo, Chilli, Tomato & Orzo Soup
I picked some of the remaining tomatoes and chillis from the garden yesterday, as the season is all but over with Autumn rapidly descending on the UK. What to do with a few tomatoes and a few chillis, though? Rummaging through the fridge rustled up a third of a Chorizo picante which pretty much made my mind up for me, soup!
Using my recipe for Spicy Chilli and lentil soup as inspiration, I've put together something altogether hotter and very selfishly in a quantity that's sufficient just for me. Seed in hot green chilli means that this soup has a wonderful kick that keeps you warm for a good while after the soup's finished!
Stats
Serves: 1
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Ingredients
- 60g Chorizo picante (about 1/3 of a ring)
- A small drizzle of olive oil (less than 1/2 tsp)
- A handful of cherry tomatoes
- 2 fat cloves of garlic
- 2 green chillis, of the thin and hot variety
- 1/4 of a medium white onion
- 300ml vegetable stock
- 40g of Orzo pasta
- A couple of dashes of lime juice
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to season
Method
- Put the oil into a small saucepan, I used an 18cm Le Creuset pan and this was a smidgen too big, over a medium heat
- Slice the chorizo into 1/2 cm half moons and add to the pan, making sure they're all spread out to let them cook
- Cook for about 10 minutes, turning as required, to render all the orange paprika-y flavour out of the chorizo
- Meanwhile, halve/quarter the cherry tomatoes, so they're evenly sized, thinly slice the garlic and dice the onion (c. 5mm or smaller) and finely slice the chillis, leaving the seeds in for a good chilli kick
- Once the chorizo is rendered, add the tomatoes, garlic, onion and chilli to the pan. Raise the heat slightly and cook for 5 minutes, or so. The plan is to soften the onion slightly, lose some (but not all!) of the raw heat from the garlic and get the tomatoes reduced down
- Add the vegetable stock to the pan, stir well and cook for a few minutes
- Now add the Orzo and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes until it's cooked through. Beware: The Orzo stick to the bottom of the pan so you'll need to treat this like a Risotto and stir, stir, stir!
- When the Orzo is cooked through, add a couple of dashes of lime juice to sharpen the soup, along with salt and pepper to season
I ate this on its own, no bread, no added dairy, as a hot soup that's almost minestrone-esque thanks to the Orzo, I don't think it actually needed anything to supplement it as a lunchtime meal.