By Kathryn Reed

Sue was celebrating two winners Saturday night – the San Francisco 49ers and her new favorite soup.

Her enthusiasm for the Niners may not be long lived. While she has been a Colin Kaepernick fan all season, her true love is the Pittsburgh Steelers. And if the Niners were to win the Super Bowl (yes, there’s still the NFC Championships to get through next weekend), it would mean they would tie the Steelers for the most Super Bowl wins at six.

Time will tell if her taste buds will be as fickle as her football allegiance – or as strong – since time will also reveal if Franco Harris or Kaepernick are her favorites.

At least today, Crock Pot Tortilla Soup is her favorite soup. She says the spices and heartiness are what she loves about this soup.

We have my friend Patty to thank for the recipe. She was right in knowing I could make it into a vegetarian creation that we would like. This is the link to the original recipe from We Are Not Martha.

Below is my adaptation of it. Patty made the original version with chicken. She thought it could use more beans.

The next time I think if I had tortilla chips in the house, I would crumble them on top instead of making the tortilla strips. I used Monterey Jack cheese because that’s usually what we have in the house.

 Crockpot Tortilla Soup

1 medium onion, chopped

2 T garlic, minced

1 jalapeno, minced

¼ C cilantro, chopped

2 cans diced tomatoes, drained

4 C veggie broth

2 cans black beans, drained

1 can corn, drained

2 T tomato paste

1 T chili powder

1 T ground cumin

1-2 avocados, chopped

Flour tortillas

Canola oil

Shredded cheese of choice

Put all of the ingredients up to the avocados into the crockpot. It could cook all day, but does not need to.

When you are ready to serve the soup, heat the oil in a pan. Put cut up tortilla strips into the hot oil, which should be about one-quarter inch deep.

Put tortilla strips, some cheese and avocado on top of soup.