Sopa de Nopales con Habas Queretana

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 4-quart clay cazuela or Dutch oven
• •Cast iron comal for toasting chile guajillo and roasting tomatoes
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Sharp knife or nopal scraper

Instructions

1. 1

   Start the habas

   Put the dried peeled habas in a heavy pot with the water or light chicken broth, the half onion, two whole garlic cloves, and one teaspoon salt. Bring to a gentle simmer. Cook uncovered for 45 to 60 minutes, until the beans are tender but not collapsed. Skim the foam during the first ten minutes. Habas thicken the broth as they soften, and that body is part of the soup.

2. 2

   Cook the nopales

   While the habas simmer, put the cut nopales in a separate pot with enough water to cover and one teaspoon salt. Simmer 12 to 15 minutes, until the strips turn from bright green to olive and their slippery liquid loosens into the water. Drain and rinse briefly with warm water. Do not overcook them into rags. They should still have a little bite, like a good vegetable from the mercado.

   Choose small to medium nopales with firm flesh and no woody base. If they bend like tired cardboard, leave them at the stall. Si no conoces el mercado, no conoces la cocina.
3. 3

   Toast the guajillo

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the chile guajillo for 15 to 20 seconds per side, just until the skin darkens slightly and smells fruity. Guajillo burns fast once it is dry. If it blackens, throw it away and start again. Burned chile makes bitter soup, and no amount of epazote will forgive you.

4. 4

   Soak and blend

   Cover the toasted guajillos with hot water and let them soften for 15 minutes. Drain them. Blend the softened chiles with the roasted tomatoes, the quarter onion, the peeled garlic clove, and one cup of broth from the habas until completely smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve. The skins stay behind. The color should be brick red and clean.

5. 5

   Fry the chile base

   Melt the manteca de cerdo in a clay cazuela or heavy pot over medium heat. Add the strained guajillo base. It will sputter, so stir with purpose. Fry 6 to 8 minutes, until the sauce darkens, thickens, and the fat begins to shine around the edges. This is where the broth stops tasting like blended chile and starts tasting like cooking. Así se hace y punto.

6. 6

   Build the soup

   Remove the onion and garlic from the pot of habas. Stir the fried guajillo base into the habas and their broth. Add the cooked nopales, diced xoconostle, epazote, Mexican oregano, and grated chilcuague if using. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes, until the xoconostle softens and the broth tastes round, tart, and herbal. Taste for salt at the end because the nopales and habas absorb more than you think.

7. 7

   Rest and serve

   Turn off the heat and let the soup rest 10 minutes. Pull out the epazote stems. Ladle into deep clay bowls. Crown each serving with crumbled queso ranchero, a little raw white onion, and lime on the side. Serve with warm hand-pressed corn tortillas. This is weeknight food from Queretaro, not a performance. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.

Chef Tips

• •Buy dried peeled habas if you can. Whole dried fava beans take longer and the skins can toughen the soup. If whole habas are all you find, soak them overnight and slip off the skins after cooking. That is work, yes. Cooking is work.
• •Xoconostle is not the same as sweet tuna fruit. Xoconostle is tart, firm, and belongs in broths and salsas from the central highlands. If your market does not have it, use a squeeze of lime at the table, but know what you are missing: cactus acidity, not citrus perfume.
• •Chilcuague is powerful. It is a root from the Bajio and Sierra Gorda register, with a tingling bite. Use a pinch, not a spoonful. If you cannot find it, leave it out. Do not replace it with black pepper and pretend it is the same.
• •This is not pozole, so do not add cacahuazintle because you saw the word in another Bajio recipe. Cacahuazintle has its place in pozole and certain corn preparations. Here the body comes from habas.
• •Serve this in clay if you have it. A Capula cazuela or a plain Queretaro barro bowl holds heat and looks right on the table beside tortillas in a palma chiquihuite.

Advance Preparation

• •The habas can be simmered one day ahead and refrigerated in their broth. Reheat gently before adding the fried guajillo base and nopales.
• •The nopales can be cleaned and cut one day ahead. Keep them covered in the refrigerator, but cook them the day you make the soup so they keep their bite.
• •The finished soup keeps for three days in the refrigerator. It thickens as the habas sit, so loosen it with a little water or broth when reheating.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 580g)