Thomasina Miers presents two vibrant Mexican-inspired recipes that celebrate spring vegetables and bold flavours. The first is a Mexican spring vegetable soup, topped with toasted pumpkin seed salsa, and the second is a comforting black bean and three-cheese quesadilla.
Mexican Spring Soup
This soup captures the essence of Mexican cuisine with gentle spicing, fresh herbs, and zingy tomatillos. It can be made with chicken or vegetable stock, homemade or shop-bought, and is perfect for using spring greens like spinach, nettles, or Swiss chard.
Ingredients
- 50g butter
- 2 large onions, peeled and finely sliced
- ½ fennel bulb, finely chopped
- 50g fresh coriander
- 250g floury potatoes, peeled and diced
- 2 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 tsp allspice
- Sea salt and black pepper
- 300g jar tomatillo salsa
- 1 litre chicken or vegetable stock, or water
- 60g pumpkin seeds
- 500g baby leaf spinach, or young nettles or Swiss chard, or a mix, washed and roughly chopped
- 1 handful fresh tarragon or dill, chopped, plus extra to serve
- 250ml double cream
- Juice of 1 lime
- Soured cream, to serve
Method
- Melt the butter in a large saucepan on a medium-high heat. Once foaming, add the onion and fennel, and sauté over a medium heat for about 10 minutes until softened.
- Finely chop the coriander stalks and add them to the pan with the potatoes and spices. Season with a teaspoon of salt and plenty of black pepper, then sweat for another five minutes.
- Add the salsa and stock, bring to a simmer, and cook gently for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, toast the pumpkin seeds in a small pan for about five minutes, shaking until they colour and start to pop. Grind two-thirds of the seeds in a spice grinder and roughly chop the rest.
- Add the spinach/nettles/chard to the soup, stir in most of the coriander leaves and the tarragon or dill (reserve some for garnish), simmer for three to four minutes until tender, then stir in the ground pumpkin seeds.
- Pour in the double cream, then blitz with a stick blender. Add the lime juice and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
- Serve in bowls topped with a swirl of soured cream, a scattering of reserved herbs, and chopped pumpkin seeds. The soup can be made a day ahead; it may lose some colour but the flavour will improve.
Black Bean and Three-Cheese Quesadillas
These quesadillas are delicious on their own or paired with the spring soup. The recipe uses black beans with chipotle and a mix of mozzarella, cheddar, and feta.
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Ingredients
- 45g butter
- 1 white onion, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
- 2 tsp chipotles en adobo (optional)
- Sea salt and black pepper
- 600g cooked black beans
- ½ tsp fennel seeds, ground
- 250g mozzarella, grated
- 250g cheddar, grated
- 100g feta, crumbled
- Small tortillas (corn or flour)
Method
- Melt the butter in a pan. Once gently foaming, add the onions, garlic, thyme, and chipotle if using. Season generously and sweat gently for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft.
- Add the beans, ground fennel, and 250ml water. Cook for another 10 minutes.
- Lift out a cup of the beans and roughly blitz them with a stick blender. Stir the blitzed beans back into the whole beans. Taste and adjust seasoning with more fennel, chipotle, or salt as needed.
- Mix all three cheeses in a bowl. Add any fresh herbs if desired, such as parsley, tarragon, coriander, or dill.
- Spoon scoops of the beans onto one half of each tortilla, scatter over the cheese mix, then fold into half moons.
- Dry-fry the quesadillas for a few minutes on each side in a large frying pan on a medium-high heat, until gooey, hot, and toasted. Serve immediately.
