Mother knows best

Keep warm with this soup straight from mom’s kitchen!

By Kourtney Meldrum, Food Columnist

If you’re painfully awaiting spring like I am, I’m sure you’ve have the terrible realization that it’s still ridiculously cold every time you step outside. I am so ready for the snow to melt and the temperatures to rise, but until that happens it’s important to find a way to keep myself warm.

This is why I’m all about soup. It’s warm, it’s hearty, and it’s darn delicious on a cold day. But my favourite soup doesn’t come from a can and can’t be bought from a store. It is made by my own mother’s loving hands. So to beat the cold this month I enlisted my mother’s help to teach me to make her special “Chicken Enchilada Soup”.

The best thing about this soup is that the prep time is very minimal at only fifteen minutes. You then place it into your slow-cooker for a good four and a half hours and let the magic happen. I also love that the recipe can be easily altered to meet the specific needs of what your taste buds are craving.

To start you’ll add in the chicken broth, cubed chicken breasts (uncooked), cumin, chili pepper, and the cayenne pepper into your large crock pot. Next put in the canned tomatoes. Remove the stems and seeds from the jalapeño and bell peppers toss them into the pot along with the onion, garlic, black beans, corn, and tomato paste.

Mix all of the ingredients well and turn the crock pot on high for four and a half hours to cook. Could it be any easier?

When you’re ready to serve the soup throw a little bit of cheese and crushed tortilla chips along with a bit of cilantro on top of each bowl to really bring this meal to the next level.

You can add in another chicken breast or two if you want more protein. You can also add strips of flour tortilla that will dissolve into the soup and thicken it up or add more chicken broth to dilute it. Try to serve it over some rice if you want to switch things up!

If you don’t finish all of the soup in one sitting you can stick it in a container and keep it in the fridge, or freeze it to warm up on a cold day when you have a craving.

On the top of my mother’s old and stained photocopied version of this recipe it says “A hearty soup to warm you on a cold day!” and there really couldn’t be a better description. So next time the cold is getting to you, make a nice pot of soup to eat while you forget about the fact that it’s so cold you can’t feel your fingers. Think instead that spring is just around the corner.

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