I first had this when a friend brought it over from a restaurant. I'd never heard of it, but I love Mexican food and this soup was amazing. It's also easy to make! The fun thing about it is since the toppings and veggies are served on the side, it can be customized to anyone's preferences. A great meal for a party or a cold wintry night.
Ingredients:
8 fresh tomatillos
3 serrano chile peppers
6 cloves garlic, peeled
3 cups beef stock or broth
12 slices bacon
3 pounds skirt or flank steak
3 cans pinto beans (15.5 ounce each)
1 red onion
1 bunch cilantro
Ground black pepper, to taste
Salt, to taste
Optional Toppings / Extras:
Diced Tomato
Diced Onion
Grilled Knob Onions (Cebollitas Asadas)
Chopped Cilantro
Lime Wedges
Hot Sauce or Salsa
Pickled or Sliced Radishes
Sliced or Diced Avocado
Mexican Rice
Corn Tortillas and/or Tortilla Chips or Strips
Cheese (Queso Cotija or Cheddar)
Directions:
There are 2 options here; to truly make this from scratch, or skip a couple of steps and make it an easier way. I made it from scratch, but if you don't have access to tomatillos or an immersion blender, you can easily buy tomatillos in cans or even tomatillo juice in the Mexican aisle of any grocery store... or even go one step further and substitute the tomatillos for one bottle of mild salsa verde, in which case you wouldn't need to blend the soup at all.
Here's the from scratch version: Cook the bacon until crispy, remove to drain and reserve some of the bacon fat. While the bacon is cooking, dice the skirt steak into bite sized pieces. Using some of the bacon fat as oil, season the skirt steak with a little salt and pepper and sear it in a frying pan until lightly browned. It doesn't have to be cooked all the way through, as it will be going into the soup; this step is just to give it a bit of caramelization so it will have more flavor. Once all the steak is lightly cooked, set it aside.
Peel the tomatillos and rough chop the serrano peppers (remove the seeds if you want the soup to be less spicy). Rough chop the garlic and red onion and remove the larger stems from the cilantro. Add the tomatillos, peppers, garlic, onion, cilantro, beef broth, about 1/2 cup of the cooked steak and a few slices of the bacon to the bottom of a large soup pot. Use an immersion blender to blend the mixture until smooth. If you don't have an immersion blender, you can use a regular blender and then transfer to a pot.
Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to medium. Add the beef. Simmer until tender, at least 30 minutes, or until the texture of the soup is to your liking (the longer you cook it, the thicker it will get). Either crumble or rough chop the bacon while the soup is cooking. Just before serving, stir the bacon and beans into the soup.
As mentioned, you can serve this with any number of toppings or rice on the side. I served it with rice, tortillas, grilled knob onions, sliced radishes, cilantro, extra salsa and diced avocado!