This is a fantastic Mexican-inspired soup - the kind of food where you've got to go with it and let the flavours just blow you away. It uses tortilla chips the way you would use croutons in a French soup, and the results are delicious and tasty. I'd never tried this before visiting Arizona. Having the freshness of chilli and the chunks of beautiful ripe avocado floating on the top is really nice, because avocado is lovely in hot dishes, too. I think it's nicest when people help themselves to the garnishes, but you could also bung everything right in the pan just before serving. By the time you've got drinks on the table, the tortilla chips will have softened slightly in the soup and will be delicious.
Serves 4
For the soup
Olive oil
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1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
2 large carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
2 green peppers, deseeded and roughly chopped
2 yellow peppers, deseeded and roughly chopped
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2 large tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 fresh bay leaves
2 chicken stock cubes, preferably organic
1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
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For the garnishes
1 ripe avocado
1 lime
1 fresh green chilli, finely sliced
2 large handfuls of tortilla chips
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1 heaped tsp dried sage
Put a large pan on a low to medium heat and pour in a good lug of olive oil. Add the onion, garlic, carrots and peppers and fry gently for 10-15 minutes, until softened, stirring every so often so they don't catch on the bottom of the pan.
Add the chopped fresh tomatoes and bay leaves, crumble in the stock cubes and add the tinned tomatoes. Pour in about 2 tomato tins' worth of water, then bring to the boil and turn down to a simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Heat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. While the soup blips away, peel and stone your avocado and dice into 1cm cubes. Put these on a plate, grate over some lime zest and squeeze on the juice to keep the avocado from turning brown. Put in the centre of the table next to a plate with your slices of green chilli.
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Lay your tortilla chips on a baking tray, drizzle with a good lug of olive oil and sprinkle over the dried sage. Heat in the oven for a few minutes until warmed through. Meanwhile, check on your soup. If you like it looser, you can add a bit of water to it at this point; if you like your soups thicker, you can leave it to cook for a bit longer. I quite like to mash the soup up a little to get a bit of pulpiness going, but if you like it chunky, leave it as is. Have a taste, season, then give it a stir and taste it again.
Once you're happy with the flavours, divide the soup between bowls and take them to the table, with the warm tortilla chips.
Jamie's America by Jamie Oliver, with photographs by David Loftus, is out now (Michael Joseph £26). You can buy it for £25 with free p&p in the UK. If you order Jamie's America, you can also purchase Jamie's Italy, getting both books for £30. Call 0843 060 0021 and quote JO/Sunday Times. Allow 7-10 working days for delivery
Part two of Jamie's American Road Trip is on Channel 4 on Tuesday at 9pm