IMBB#14: Orange you glad I made tortilla soup?

This is a lovely theme for Is My Blog Burning: the color orange.

The only problem: what to make, what to make, because with the Indian penchant for using turmeric and spices, all our food looks almost uniformly brown-orange. It is a problem, many of our desserts are orange too, with the use of mango and saffron. So theoretically, I could have made any of a thousand recipes. But it is a busy day, and I had friends over for a Mexican fiesta so the orange recipe is going to be Mexican-inspired- Tortilla Soup.

I love making this soup for various reasons: It has a history of being passed on from room-mate to room-mate ( I got it from my old room-mate Steph who got it from her old roommate Eve who...you get the picture).

It is also a very student-friendly recipe, made from all pantry ingredients and budget-friendly ones at that. Finally and most importantly, it is totally and undeniably ORANGE!

The habanero pepper (one of the hottest peppers in the world) is the only exotic ingredient and it adds an incredible kick but it can be totally substituted with chili powder or other peppers.

Tortilla Soup

Ingredients
2 cans corn kernels/2 boxes frozen corn
1 medium diced onion
2 tsp. cumin powder
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. paprika
1 hananero pepper
3/4 can crushed tomato
2 tbsp. oil
1 tbsp. lime juice
Tortilla chips (lime flavored ones work well)

Method

1. Heat oil in stockpot. Fry onion, corn kernels, spices, season with salt and pepper.
2. Add tomatoes. Saute for a few minutes. 
3. Add 5 cups water and habanero pepper. Simmer for 20 minutes. 
4. Pull out and discard hanabero pepper (this is important is you want to avoid dialling 911 during dinner...habanero is one of the hottest peppers known to man).
5. Add lime juice and a handful of chips and blend the soup partially to make it more brothy.

Serve topped with more crushed chips, shredded Monterey cheese (or another hard cheese like cheddar) and cilantro. Enjoy!