Today's Recipe - Zesty Mexican Soup

Today's Recipe
If you don't know what to serve for dinner tonight ...
This spicy vegetable soup is full of flavor, and easy to prepare, and is the perfect addition to your Healthiest Way of Eating. It's a great way to incorporate a variety of vegetables into on meal and it actually gets better with time.
Zesty Mexican Soup
Prep and Cook Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion, minced
• 4 medium cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 TBS red chili powder
• 3 cups + 1 TBS chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 small to medium green bell pepper, diced into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 small zucchini, diced into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 cup finely chopped collard greens
• 1 15 oz can (BPA free) diced tomatoes
• 2 cups or 1 15 oz can (BPA free) black beans, rinsed
• 1 cup frozen yellow corn
• 1 4 oz can (BPA free) diced green chili
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 cup chopped pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat 1 TBS broth in a medium soup pot. Healthy Sauté onion, garlic, and green peppers in broth over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring often.
2. Add red chili powder and mix in well. Add broth and tomatoes. Cook for another 5 minutes and add beans, corn, green chili, oregano, and cumin.
3. Bring to a boil on high heat. Once it begins to boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes longer. (Simmering uncovered enhances the flavor.)
4. Add zucchini and collard greens and cook for 5 more minutes. Add chopped cilantro, pumpkin seeds, salt, and pepper.

Serves 6 Serving Suggestions Serve with

• Romaine & Avocado Salad

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In-Depth Nutritional Profile for Zesty Mexican Soup
Healthy Food Tip
I have a latex allergy and was recently told that avocados and latex are somehow related. Can you clarify this for me?

Between 30-50% of individuals who have allergies to latex may also have allergic reactions to certain plant foods including avocados, bananas, mangos, papayas, and chestnuts. Currently, the most conclusive evidence suggests that foods most likely to cross-react with latex are uncooked foods containing enzymes called chitinases, which have some similar protein structures to the proteins found in latex. I use the qualifier "uncooked" here because some evidence suggests that the cooked forms of these foods may be acceptable since cooking can bring about changes in the structure of the food's chitinase enzymes. Legumes, for example, also contain chitinase enzymes but are seldom involved in latex food allergy, presumably because they are rarely eaten uncooked.