Mexican spicy/smoky bean soup

Hey guys,

I recently travelled through Mexico for a couple of months. This is a recipe for a very simple, but tasty soup. There are lots of families who convert the front of their house to a make-shift cheap eatery. This was a common receipe at these places. Lots of variations (see bottom of post). It's spicy, smoky and a little salty. Usually served with a side of heated tortillas for dipping.

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INGREDIENTS

• 5 frankfurter sausages, chopped
• 700mL water
• 2 cans of mixed beans (or just one type of your preference).In the UK, a standard can of mixed pimento/kidney/black eyes is 400g.
• Handful of fresh coriander.
• 1 lime
• 1-3 medium-sized chillies, sliced at 45 degree angle (I use un-named generic supermarket chillies. Not finger chillies, but the larger ones.)
• 1 tsp coarse black pepper
• 1tsp butter

METHOD

• Coat bottom of a pan with a teaspoon of melted butter
• Add coriander, chillies, black pepper and a squeeze of lime.
• Stir it up
• Add water, sausages and beans.
• Heat to boil, and then simmer for 20-30 mins.
• Done. No blending needed :)

VARIATIONS

• Sausages give the majority of the flavour. If you want it more smokey/meaty then add or subtract sausages.
• Coriander can be chopped and left in, or left whole and taken out at the end. Depends if you mind leafy stuff in your soup.
• More or less chillies as per spice preference.
• I often add some sweetcorn for myself, but this wasn't done in Mexico.

bon appetit