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The Mansion on Turtle Creek Tortilla Soup

A hearty tortilla soup with corn tortillas, tomatoes, chilies, chicken, avocado, and cheese.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Cumin and coriander match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,866 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

The recipe

Time40 minutes

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: tortillas

Directions

Make the base

  1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Add tortillas and garlic and sauté until tortillas are crisp and garlic is golden brown, about 4 to 5 minutes.

  3. Add onion purée and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until reduced by half.

  4. Add tomato purée, roasted chilies, jalapeños, cumin, coriander, epazote, bay leaf, and chicken stock.

  5. Bring to a boil.

  6. Lower heat and simmer for approximately 40 minutes.

  7. Skim fat from surface, if necessary.

Finish and serve

  1. Process through a food mill to attain the perfect consistency or use a blender (soup may become thick; thin out with additional chicken stock).

  2. Season to taste with salt, lemon and cayenne (optional).

  3. Ladle soup into warm bowls.

  4. Garnish each bowl with an equal portion of chicken breast, avocado, shredded cheese, and crisp tortilla strips.

  5. Serve immediately.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cumin + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,866 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Tomato + coriandertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,966 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Tomato + cumintop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,272 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Garlic + tomatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together14,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Corn tortillas
Fried until crisp, they add toasted corn flavor and body to the soup base.
Garlic
Browned in the oil, it adds a savory, aromatic depth to the base.
Onion
Puréed and cooked down, it builds sweetness and body into the soup.
Tomato
Puréed, it provides acidity, color and the main liquid body of the soup.
New mexican chilies
Fire roasted, they contribute smoky, earthy heat and color to the broth.
Chicken stock
Forms the liquid base that carries all the flavors through the simmer.

The step that matters

Reducing the onion purée. Cooking the onion purée until reduced by half concentrates its sugars and removes raw, watery flavor, so the soup tastes deeper rather than thin and vegetal.

Flavor stand-ins for the epazote

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, garlic, onion, tomato, cumin, coriander, chicken):

  1. Oreganobetter flavor fit
  2. Basilbetter flavor fit
  3. Gingerbetter flavor fit
  4. Epazotethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, garlic, onion, tomato, cumin, coriander, chicken. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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