A not so boring soup...

I had to come up with a menu that included a soup for an event, and I kept thinking that people probably had enough mushroom cream or potato soup for a lifetime, but I could not deny that people love them. They were easy to make and honestly they sounded very good for one of the many cold nights during December in the Napa Valley. What about adding a little spiciness to it? Nah, maybe not. Wait, maybe something spicy, but with flavor… What about spicy with a roasted flavor? Yum, poblano will probably work, but poblano is not really spicy... What if we add finely chopped fresno chiles? Those are a little spicier and will add color too. A little more of this back and forth happened for a couple of minutes and then I had the base in my head. I am lucky enough to know a lot of chefs and when an idea pops into my head I can explain it a little bit and they are on board, ready to go. This was one of those occasions and within 40 minutes we had 12 quarts of what was, at the moment, called sopa de poblano.

We tasted and agreed on some tweaking and we decided that a drizzle of chili oil did not add a lot to it. Instead I made the already (some)people’s favorite, chile de arbol crema, and voila... SOPA DE TRES CHILES was created! Enjoy this easy-to-make soup with a mild, but delicious kick. Please feel free to pair with a warm piece of telera bread, or it’s fancy European cousin, the french baguette, if the telera is not available in your area.