Katherine Center Wasn’t Kidding! Yummiest Soup EVER!!
Okay, I can barely move. I have just finished stuffing myself with the yummiest Mexican Tomato Lime soup EVER! Sometime over the summer, I was reading Katherine Center’s book The Bright Side of Disaster (my review and author interview) and her main character made Mexican Tomato Lime soup for dinner. Well, of course I wanted the recipe. It sounded delicious. I love, love, love limes. So naturally, I asked Katherine Center if she would share it with us. I mean, who else do you know does that? Sees a character eating something yummy and then asks the author for the recipe? Well, yes, that would be me. Even though technically, I don’t like to cook. But this was too easy!
I’ve been waiting forever to make this soup, but I received it in the middle of 100 degree summer weather and I don’t do hot soup over the stove. But now that snow is upon us and I still had garden fresh tomatoes, I knew I had to make it. And I knew I had to share it with you.
Here are the onions and garlic simmering:
And then after the tomatoes were added:
Everything is looking great and now the water is ready to be added:
Mmm . . . after putting in the lime and cilantro!
Ready to eat up! Avocados, cheese and chips added. Plus, I added more lime. Did I mention I love lime?
Okay, this soup was to die for! I LOVED it! My three year old kept saying “Mmm . . .” He loved it! So did my 18 month old. My 13 year old niece was with us for dinner and she said she now has a new favorite soup.
Thank you Katherine Center for making our dinner a success!
And if you want the recipe, it can be found here. I know somebody has made it before, I had a keyword come in with the words “maw, tomato lime soup.” Tell me if you make it!
I have never had this soup before but it sounds intriguing. I don’t know if my family would like it or not because they don’t like me to cook anything with fresh garlic. We love Mexican food though, and this seems to have a Mexican flair. I’ll have to give it some thought. I’m glad your family liked it so much - you’re pictures looked yummy!
on November 9th, 2008 at 11:53 pmAlyce - I didn’t use fresh garlic myself because I think it’s a pain to chop. But we have a huge jar of garlic already chopped up and that’s what I used. It gave the soup flavor but I didn’t notice it as being overwhelming.
on November 10th, 2008 at 12:31 amThat’s good. I looked at the recipe and interview and saw that she also uses chicken sometimes, and I think my family may really like that.
on November 10th, 2008 at 12:38 amThis looks delicious! Unfortunately, I’m allergic to avocado, but I may try the recipe anyway. It might not be the same, but it looks too good to pass up.
on November 10th, 2008 at 3:17 amOh, my WORD, I am SO going to try this.
on November 10th, 2008 at 6:43 amLIMES! Cilantro! Tomatoes! Too many favorite foods in one go! ::twitches from good food overkill::
Mmm! Looks yummy… it also looks like Heartburn City lol. My favorite soup is a cabbage and chicken soup cooked in V8 juice.
on November 10th, 2008 at 9:46 amOh man, I have to make this. I wonder if I have the ingredients to make it today? I’m dying to try this.
on November 10th, 2008 at 10:17 amAlyce - When I was eating it, I did mention to my husband that I could totally see how chicken would be good in it as well.
TadMack - He, he. That’s right cilantro’s and limes. Two of my favorite things!
Ladytink_534 - I got heartburn so bad when I was pregnant. I regreted eating anything acidic. I guess this one would be one to avoid based on the criteria. Cabbage and chicken soup in V8? Hmm . . . I’d have to think about that one.
Jen - Looks yummy, doesn’t it? The only think I had to buy was cumin (I guess I normally don’t cook with it because I didn’t have it) and vegetable based bullion. I had chicken based but not bullion. And actually my grocery store doesn’t carry it, so I used some type of paste. Which worked fine. I also had to get the avocados, but I’m sure you could skip it if you absolutely had to. But it was that much yummier because of it. We had tomatoes from the garden which I imagine made the soup a lot more yummier than just store bought tomatoes. We always have lime and cilantro at our house. They are staples.
I can see how this is the type of soup where you just gage the ingredients. I didn’t measure the onions, garlic, or tomatoes. And after putting in six cups of water instead of the called for eight, I didn’t want to make it more watery, so left it at that.
on November 10th, 2008 at 10:52 amI love soup and that one looks fabulous!
on November 10th, 2008 at 11:01 amUm, I can totally vouch for this. After you posted that recipe, I literally made it once a week until I bought a crock pot a few weeks back and made a huge batch of it to freeze. Now I can have it whenever I want without any extra effort (just leave out the cilantro and lime when you freeze it and add it when you defrost). So delicious!
P.S. If you like spicy you can also add peppers from the garden. I add about three chili or two jalapeno peppers when I make it.
on November 10th, 2008 at 12:34 pmIt really is a good soup i want to make it, if i can get my mom to get all the stuff for it. yummy!
on November 10th, 2008 at 2:53 pmKathy - I noticed you posted a soup recipe as well on your blog!
Rebecca - YAY! I’m so happy that you made it! So good to know that it freezes well. I still have one box of tomatoes left and I wasn’t sure what to do with them before they went bad (I don’t can). I think I’ll do that and make up another batch and freeze it. I do spicy too, so I’ll try adding some peppers. Thanks!
Brieana - I’m glad you liked it when you were over here! I ate the rest of it for lunch today. Now it’s all gone. Boo hoo!
on November 10th, 2008 at 4:23 pmIt’s hard to believe that something acidic would pair well with tomatoes, but then I have used balsamic vinegar with tomatoes and it tasted great.
on November 10th, 2008 at 6:19 pmSo limes are next on my list!
That looks SO good. I’m going to have to try it. I love the pics!
on November 10th, 2008 at 6:59 pmErik - My favorite salsa is tomatoes, onion, peppers, cilantro and lime. Seems like a natural pairing for me. As a soup, it was to die for!
Michelle - Tell me if you do make it. It was the perfect cold weather soup for us!
on November 10th, 2008 at 7:18 pmYay, Natasha! It’s so funny that you just posted about my soup, because I just made it last night–a great batch, too!
I’m so glad that you liked it! And how insanely cute are those pix of your little ones eating it up!?
And, actually, you don’t have to put in the garlic. I’ve done it without (for my mom, who’s not a garlic girl), and it’s much the same.
And the original recipe did call for hot peppers. We used serrano (1-2 little ones, which sting you under the fingernails after you chop them, but not in a bad way…), but you can even use dry red pepper flakes! I stopped using peppers when my kids said it was too spicy!
I have just started a fledgling little author blog, and I’m going to post about your post! I’m going to put the pic of your beautiful finished bowl up as an illustration, but please let me know if you’d rather I didn’t use it and I’ll take it down. (Still learning blog etiquette!)
So, so fun to see this post! Many good wishes to you!!
on November 10th, 2008 at 8:56 pmKatherine - I finished off the soup for lunch so I’m thinking I need to make another one! One of my mommy friends was here for lunch and she had a bowl. She was totally serious when she said it was the best soup she’s had. My specialty was taco soup at gathering but I think I would much prefer this soup to that now! I really did like it that much. No problem on taking the photo. It was fun to take photos as I was making it. I’d love for you to post about it!
on November 10th, 2008 at 9:04 pm[...] Jump to Comments Last summer, reader and blogger Natasha Maw did an interview with me on her Maw Books Blog. One of her questions was about a tomato-lime soup that I’d written about in The Bright [...]
on November 10th, 2008 at 9:36 pmYum….Cilantro and lime are two of my favortie things to add to food. *I* would love this, but no one else in my family would. Maybe my youngest daughter. She’s a bit more adventurous. Her favorite food is sushi. Unfortunately, my husband and oldest daughter hate tomatoes, avocado and cilantro. My husband also hates cheese. Who hates cheese?!? I guess him not liking it has been helpful to my waistline…but bah I miss cheese sometimes.
on November 10th, 2008 at 9:41 pmJenn M. - Hates cheese? What in the world does he eat? How can you go through life not eating cheese?!
on November 10th, 2008 at 10:14 pmYup…Hates cheese. I have to make a separate dish without cheese. He orders his hamburgers without cheese….and tacos…so many things just need cheese!!! I think he’s nuts.
on November 10th, 2008 at 10:39 pmThis sounds like a yummy recipe. I will have to try it out. We have a bunch of fresh tomatos left also and I love avacados.
on November 10th, 2008 at 10:48 pmI do think it is a bit crazy to hate cheese (my sister-in-law) does too, but I don’t agree about it being strange to order hamburgers without cheese! A hamburger doesn’t have cheese, only a cheeseburger has cheese. At least that was the case where I grew up in California. Here in the Midwest it seems to be true at restaurants, but not at people’s houses. We would ask who DOES want cheese, here they ask (if they remember) who does NOT want cheese. Bizarre.
on November 11th, 2008 at 9:12 amOkay, I was a little impatient with those parenthesis, that should read “(my sister-in-law does too),”
on November 11th, 2008 at 9:13 amOkay so I tried it out. My fresh tomatoes had to be used so this came at a perfect time. I really, really, really liked it!!! It’s recipe that is part of permanent collection. I did forget the vegetable boullion, but I had some tomato/chicken stuff that worked just fine.
Next time I will try and use some jalapenos, my husband would like that. He is not a big soup fan, there are only about 2 soups he will eat and he says he will eat this one again, so yeah!
on November 13th, 2008 at 2:43 pmCari - Yay! I’m glad that you liked it! Katherine would be so happy!
Jen - Did I lose a comment where you said you did make this soup? Or did I dream it up?
on November 13th, 2008 at 10:39 pmOh, does that look fabulous! I’ve got to try it this week.
on November 15th, 2008 at 1:10 pmWe made the soup last night. Couldn’t find veggie bullion at the store so we used cilantro and tomato/chicken ones. I think we added too many because I forgot the fresh cilantro and realized it after I put in the other bullions. We wanted the cilantro taste, so I threw in a couple cilantro bullions from the cupboard. That was a little too much salt! So, we will be going for less salt next time. And there will be a next time. My hubbie loved it, so did I- the kids wouldn’t touch it. We’ll have to work on that. I think we may try adding hominy for a posole style soup and more chicken. We liked the chicken. Thanks for sharing the recipe- I’m passing it along as a keeper!
on November 20th, 2008 at 8:49 pmBellezza - When you make it, you’ll have to come back and tell me how you liked it!
Holly - I’ve never even heard of cilantro bullions. I couldn’t find veggie bullion at the store either but found a paste that said was a substitute. It worked fine. My niece made it (she’s thirteen) and my sister said it was good but also salty, she didn’t know if that was because of the cook or the recipe. I didn’t think it was salty at all. I’m making this again as well!
on November 20th, 2008 at 10:36 pmThey make cilantro bullion cubes?!?! Cilantro is one of my favorite herbs/spices.
on November 21st, 2008 at 9:25 am