Enchilada Soup

Ingredients:

• 6 dried chilies, mild, medium or hot to your taste
• 7 cups water, divided use
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
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• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 to 1 cup dried beans (pinto or kidney beans are my favorites for this)
• 1 (16-oz.) can tomatoes
• 2 tsp. ground cumin
• 2 tsp. oregano
• pepper, to taste

Toppings:

• tortilla chips
• cheddar cheese
• sliced olives
• chopped green onions
• chopped fresh tomatoes
• chopped cilantro
• sour cream
• chopped avocados

Directions:

Chop the dried chilies up. Remove the seeds and ribs if you want to decrease the heat. Boil 1 cup of the water and stir the chilies in. Soak for at least 2 hours.

Saute onions over medium heat until lightly browned. Add the garlic and saute until getting soft and you can smell it cooking.

Pick the beans over and rinse them. Put in the crock pot with the rest of the soup ingredients.

Put the chilies and the water they soaked in into your blender and puree thoroughly. Add to the crock pot. (you can substitute fresh sweet peppers or chilies for dried, or add some fresh to the pot. But dried chilies add a wonderful depth of flavor that fresh don't. They aren't much trouble to use, and are well worth it. You can buy big bags of them pretty cheap, or dry your own.)

Cover the crock pot and cook on low until the beans are tender, about 8 hours.

Serve with a nice selection of toppings.

This is great as is, vegetarian. But you can add 1 lb. of chunked, browned beef or pork, or some ground meat for the meat lovers.

By Free2B from North Royalton, OH