Today is National Homemade Soup Day! It sort of seems redundant to say “homemade soup” if you’re Latino. Isn’t all our caldo homemade?
At least it is in the kitchen of chef and author Marissa Marie, who released her Mexican cookbook Slurp Like a Mexican: 50 Recipes of Authentic Mexican Soups, Stews, and Much More! late last year. In it, Marie, who is also a nutritionist and restaurant owner, shares dozens of recipes with readers–from chicken posole verde to fresh corn and poblano (sopa de elote y rajas).
“Personally, I feel Mexican soups are better than those from any other part of the world,” Marie writes. “Cooking Mexican food in an authentic way can seem like a daunting task. [It] has an insane variety, and the taste easily covers a wide spectrum of flavors.”
Some of these flavors are enhanced even more by the “Mexican staples” she lists in her book that every cook should have in their kitchen before starting to make one of her soups. This includes chile, ancho, guajillo, habanero, jalapeño, morita, cilantro and even cinnamon.
“Mexican cinnamon, or Ceylon cinnamon, is quite unlike the cinnamon normally used in the United States,” Marie writes. “It’s headier and warmer than its American counterpart.”
Other soup recipes she shares include cream of squash flower soup (crema de flor de calabaza), dried fava bean soup (caldo de habas) and one called Soup of the Seven Seas (caldo de siete mares).
Whatever caldo you decide to eat today, don’t forget the tortillas!