Mexican Tomato-Bean Soup With Corn Dumplings

Submitted by nkoprince08

"I found this recipe in a cooking light magazine and thought it tasted great and was very simple to make. The only part that didn't work so well was getting my dumplings to cook as there wasn't a whole lot of liquid left after adding the beans and tomatoes. So, I am going to try adding just a little more vegetable broth or water next time so that my dumplings cook up better. I just really like the taste of this soup."

 

• Ready In: 30mins
• Ingredients: 18
• Yields: 4 1 cup servings
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• Soup

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 cup onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 2 teaspoons bottled minced garlic
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup water
• 1⁄2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 (15 1/2 ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained (garbanzo beans)
• 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained

• Dumplings

• 1⁄3 cup masa harina or 1/3 cup cornmeal
• 1⁄8 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons hot water
• 1 teaspoon olive oil

• Remaining Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 1⁄4 cup queso fresco or 1/4 cup cheddar cheese

directions

1. To prepare soup, heat 2 teaspoons oil in a dutch oven over medium-high heat.
2. Add onion; saute 3 minutes or until tender.
3. Add chili powder and garlic; saute 30 seconds.
4. Add broth and next 6 ingredients (through tomatoes); bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes.
5. To prepare dumplings, combine masa harina or cornmeal and 1/8 teaspoon salt in a bowl.
6. Add 3 tablespoons hot water and 1 teaspoon oil; stir until a soft dough forms (dough will be dry).
7. Divide dough into 24 pieces, shaping each into a ball. Add dumplings to soup; cook, uncovered, 3 minutes or until dumplings float.
8. Stir in cilantro and juice.
9. Ladle 1 cup soup into each of 4 bowls; top each serving with 1 tablespoon queso fresco.

Reviews

[ellie_]

Very good soup, but I couldn't figure out the dumplings. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Meredith C-ville]

We enjoyed this as a slightly different soup. I subbed black beans for the chickpeas and used less liquid. I was really skeptical of the number of dumplings it says to make from just 1/3 cup of masa, so I used 1/2 cup instead, and was surprised to get 30 of them! I realized that you don't want them to be huge. I also did not put the olive oil into the dough, and they turned out fine. I do NOT think that cornmeal is an acceptable sub for masa in this recipe. They are different products, with the masa being much more like flour (and apt to turn into a dough), which I think is why Starrynews had difficulty with this. It was really good with the queso fresco, and I'd never made "corn dumplings" before, and they were great.

 

[Starrynews]

The flavors were wonderful - especially the tomatoes and cilantro. I had plenty of broth, but had difficulty with the dumplings. I used cornmeal and could not get them to form a dough. When I finally managed to get them to stick together and into the pot, they completely dissolved instead of cooking. I am definitely going to keep the soup recipe on hand, but I'm going to have to figure out what's going on with the dumplings for me. Thanks for sharing!