Mexican Style Beef & Tortilla Noodle Soup

Tonight's meal can be summed up in 3 words...Best - Soup - Ever! This evening I was in the mood for soup. As I drove home from work, I thought about what kind of soup I could make that was delicious and didn't take a lot of time to prepare...and the light bulb went off! I had plenty of leftover cooked beef fajita meat and cooked peppers in the fridge -- so I made a quick stop at the grocery store on my way home and picked up some low sodium beef stock and canned fire roasted tomatoes just in case I didn't have any in my pantry (which, of course, I did). When I got home, I diced up the leftover cooked beef and peppers and from there, my super easy soup recipe took off. It was so quick and simple, yet so flavorful. I decided to stick with the "Mexican theme" of the star ingredients (fajita beef and peppers) and made my soup base a combination of beef broth and tomatoes that I pureed with my immersion blender stick to thicken the soup and give it some body -- it worked like a dream. As I was dicing up the beef and peppers, I was thinking about how nice it would be to have noodles in my soup. While I've made zucchini noodles to go in my soup in the past...tonight I wanted "starchy-feeling" noodles in my soup. Then...light bulb #2 went off! I had one grain-free tortilla left in the fridge from last night's fajitas. I went ahead and made one more tortilla to use as part of my noodles experiment (they only take a few minutes to make).  I sliced my tortilla up into "noodle strips" and tossed just a few of the "test strips" into my simmering soup to see how they would hold up. I wondered if they would fall apart or bloat and get soggy and gross, so I waited to find out before adding all of them. After 10 minutes of simmering away in the soup I tasted them and they were perfect....and, well..."noodley"!!! I was SO excited and immediately cut up the other tortilla too and added my tortilla noodles (made from 2 tortillas) to the pot of soup. They held up well and actually had a noodle-like texture as they cooked in the soup. Oh the visions dancing around in my head for this fall and winter -- chicken noodle soup, beef and noodle soup, vegetable noodle soup...oodles of noodles soup...you get the picture! This soup is a great way to use leftover pot roast or any type of cooked beef and would also be great with leftover cooked chicken as well (just substitute chicken broth for the beef broth) and it would be good without the noodles as well. I snapped a few photos below along with the super simple recipe. Enjoy!

Mexican Style Beef & Tortilla Noodle Soup
Makes approximately 3 servings

Ingredients:
1 14.5-ounce can diced fire roasted tomatoes, including juice
2 cups low sodium beef stock (or chicken stock)
1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon ground chipotle chile, or to taste
Juice from 1/2 of a lime
2 tablespoons Swerve Sweetener (or sweetener equivalent to 2 tablespoons sugar), or to taste
2 cups of cooked diced beef (or chicken)
1 cup cooked diced bell peppers or Poblano peppers (I used red and yellow peppers)
Tortilla Noodles (made from cutting up 2 tortillas into 1/4-inch strips), recipe below
Shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream for garnish, optional

Directions:
In a 4 quart stockpot, add the undrained can of tomatoes and beef stock. Bring just to a simmer over medium heat; remove from heat. Using an immersion blender, puree tomatoes and beef stock until mostly pureed, leaving a few chunks of tomato, if desired. Return soup to the heat; stir in salt, chipotle, Swerve sweetener and lime juice (the sweetener helps cut the sharp acid flavor of the tomatoes and gives it a subtly sweet tomato flavor that contrasts nicely with the heat from the chipotle). Taste soup for seasoning and make any necessary adjustments. Add cooked beef and peppers and bring to a light boil; reduce heat and simmer about 15 minutes. Add tortilla noodles to soup and continue simmering another 5 to 10 minutes, until heated through. Serve soup topped with shredded cheddar cheese and a dollop of sour cream, if desired.

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For the tortillas:

Grain-free Tortillas (makes one 8-inch tortilla)

Ingredients:
1/4 cup egg whites or Egg Beaters
2 tablespoons blanched almond flour
2 teaspoons ground golden flax
1 teaspoon finely grated Parmesan
Dash of sea salt
Generous dash of ground chipotle chile (or seasoning of choice such as smoked paprika, etc.)

Directions:
Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl to form a smooth, thin batter. Lightly spray a 10-inch non-stick skillet with olive oil spray and heat over medium-high heat. Pour batter into hot skillet, tilting the pan and using a circular motion to evenly distribute the batter in the bottom. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes until very lightly browned and cooked around edges. Carefully loosen and flip using a rubber spatula; cook for another 1 to 2 minutes. Serve and fill with your favorite fajita, taco or sandwich fixings.

*Note: To make 4 tortillas, use the following amounts: 1 cup egg whites/egg substitute, 1/2 cup blanched almond flour, 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoon of ground golden flax, 4 teaspoons finely grated Parmesan, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon seasoning (or to taste). Pour approximately 1/4 cup of batter in hot skillet to make each tortilla.