🇲🇽 Mexico · Pátzcuaro, Michoacán
Sopa tarascaMexican bean and tomato soup
A Michoacán soup of puréed pinto beans and roasted tomato with dried ancho or pasilla chile, garlic and onion, served with fried tortilla strips, crumbled cheese, cream and chile.
Origin and history
Sopa tarasca was created in 1966 in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, by Felipe Oseguera Iturbide and his family while preparing to open their hostería, according to Mexican press accounts. They wanted a dish that spoke for the cuisine of the region. The Larousse gastronomic dictionary lists it among Michoacán's representative soups.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 4 servings
- Total time
- 50 min
- Hands-on
- 30 min
Ingredients
- 600 g3 cups cooked pinto or bayo beans, with some of their cooking liquid; about 250 g (1.3 cups) dried beans, cooked until soft
- 3 medium ripe tomatoes, about 400 g (14 oz)
- 3 dried ancho or pasilla chiles, stemmed, seeded and deveined; keep 1 for garnish
- 1/2 white onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 litre4 cups chicken broth or water, or bean cooking liquid
- 3 tbsp lard or vegetable oil, plus oil for frying the garnishes
- 1 sprig epazote, optional
- salt, to taste
- 4 corn tortillas, cut in thin strips and fried until crisp
- 100 g3.5 oz queso fresco or Cotija, crumbled
- 120 ml1/2 cup crema (Mexican cream), or sour cream
- 1 avocado, diced or sliced
Method
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1. Heat a comal or heavy skillet over medium heat and roast the tomatoes, onion and garlic until soft and charred in spots, turning them as they colour, about 8 minutes.
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2. Toast two of the chiles in a dry or lightly oiled pan for 20 to 30 seconds per side, just until fragrant; do not let them burn or they turn bitter. Cut the third chile into thin strips and fry them briefly in oil for garnish.
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3. Blend the roasted vegetables and the toasted chiles with the beans and about 1 cup of the liquid until completely smooth.
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4. Heat the lard or oil in a wide pot until shimmering and pour in the purée (it will spit). Fry for about 5 minutes, stirring, until it darkens.
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5. Add the remaining liquid and the epazote, season with salt, and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until creamy and slightly thick. Thin with more liquid if needed.
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6. Fry the tortilla strips in hot oil until crisp and drain on paper towels.
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7. Ladle the soup into bowls. Top with the tortilla strips, fried chile strips, cheese, a spoon of crema and avocado, and serve at once.
Notes
- Total time: 50 min with cooked beans.
- It is a modern classic: it comes from Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, and the name honours the Tarascans (Purépecha), the Indigenous people of the region, with beans, tomato and chile that are old ingredients of the area.
- Ancho is the usual chile, mild and fruity; pasilla gives a darker, slightly bitter note. The garnish of crisp tortilla, cheese, cream and avocado is part of the dish, not an optional extra.
- It is not tortilla soup: the base here is puréed beans, where tortilla soup is a tomato-chile broth. Pinto, bayo or black beans are all used; the beans define the dish.
- If you start from dried beans, cook them with a little onion and an epazote sprig and save the liquid for the soup. Canned beans are fine in a pinch; rinse them and use water or broth.
- The soup (without garnishes) keeps for 3 days refrigerated and thickens; thin it with broth when reheating.
Adapted from Sopa tarasca estilo Michoacán, receta tradicional, Excélsior and Sopa tarasca: receta original e historia, UnoTV.
At the festivals
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