menudo

1 cup of dried chickpeas, soaked overnight, and then boiled for 2 hours. (i also added the posole that i made) and I also put a cup of fresh beans, but if you use dried beans, soak them overnight as well and boil them for 2 hours with the chickpeas.

1 pound of tripe, washed in salt water and lemon juice, cut into bite sized pieces, par-boiled to get the scum off. This is optional, but makes your soup less cloudy and your final broth less... um, offal smelling.

1 pigs foot or knuckles (or a calf’s foot) I asked the butcher for the left foot- harhar!

1 large onion, chopped

5 cloves of garlic or a whole head if you love garlic like me, peeled but whole

10 black pepper corns

2 of your favorite hot chilis

Corn meal or corn flour or something corny

Salt or broth cube

Spoon of tomato paste

Oregano and other spices like cumin and coriander

Garnishes of onion, cilantro, lime or lemon and oregano (avocado is great too!)

I boiled the chickpeas from 7 to 9am then added the par boiled tripe, pig foot, beans, onion, garlic cloves, pepper corns, and hot peppers. Covered it in plenty of water and brought to a boil then simmer for two hours.

11am I made a paste from the tomato paste, broth cube and herbs and corn meal and stirred it into the soup.

11:30am I cut the raw corn kernals off the cob into the soup. I tasted it and it was fire engine hot, so hot spicy that I knew my poor husband's taste buds were never going to take it. ha! So I fished out the chipotli peppers to recycle into chipolti cheese dip.

I garnished each bowl with cilantro (from my little table top pots), sweet onion, fresh tomatoes and squeeze of lime and served with homemade tortillas