Southwest Tomato Soup

Browsing through magazines of mine for the month of October of years past, I came across this one. It caught my eye because it's called "southwest tomato soup" and entails ingredients, the majority of which, I already have.

Sitting down to write this post, I realize a mistake I made: inadvertantly substituting ground pork for pork sausage. Don't ask me what the heck I was thinking when I prepared the soup and didn't realize the difference between ground pork and pork sausage. Maybe a brain fart? A big brain fart?

Southwest Tomato Soup
adapted from Cooking Club of America

8 oz. pork sausage ground pork
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 medium onion, halved, thinly sliced
1 large rib celery, thinly sliced
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 lb. tomatoes, peeled, finely chopped, OR 1 (28-oz.) can Italian crushed tomatoes
2 c water
1 (14-oz.) can lower-sodium chicken broth
1 (5-oz.) can tomato sauce
1 (4.5-oz.) can diced green chiles
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c orzo (rice-shaped pasta), if desired

Cook pork in large pot over medium heat 4 to 6 minutes or until browned and cooked through. Drain on paper towels.

Heat oil and butter in same pot over medium heat until butter is melted. Cook onion and celery 8 to 10 minutes or until softened, stirring occasionally. Add tomato paste and garlic; cook 1 minute.

Add tomatoes, water, broth, tomato sauce, chiles, cumin, paprika, crushed red pepper, oregano and salt. Stir in sausage and orzo. Simmer 30 minutes.

The soup turned out to be ok, though I think it would've been better with some spicy sausage instead of plain ground pork. It would've kicked the flavors up a notch, which it could use. The soup flavors were mild, none overbearing. While I added the optional orzo, it didn't really do anything for me.  If anything, it seemed a little weird. Next time: spicy sausage and omission of orzo.

Cost:

• ground pork: $1.22
• onion: $0.18
• celery: $0.10
• tomato paste: $0.07
• tomatoes: $1.29
• broth: $0.21
• tomato sauce: $0.39
• green chiles: $1.59
• orzo: $1, SWAG

Total: $6.05, but I'll round up to $6.50 to account for the dry seasonings. That makes each of 6 servings $1.08.

Have the soup with a simple salad of romaine, red onions and green peppers lightly dressed with Italian. And maybe a wedge or two of corn bread if you have some.