comfort food...

What's your idea of comfort food? In our house, it's fideo. It's like a bowl of cozy.

Elliott helped me make a big pot of it this week.

We start with fideo noodles. Basic semolina pasta, broken into little pieces.

I buy these bags for about .50 cents each, but you can break up your own pasta

in a big ziplock bag too. I used to toast them on the stovetop,

stirring constantly- labor intensive! Now I just

drizzle a bit of olive oil in a baking dish, pour in the fideo, and toss them

around so the oil coats all the noodles, and then pop them in a 350º

oven for around 10 minutes. They come out perfect. So easy!

Elliott and I are using 2 bags (7 oz. each) in this recipe.

Don't be afraid if your noodles look very dark. The fideo will be delicious!

Next, we chop and sauté one onion, with a few cloves of minced garlic- about 5 minutes.

Add 2 tsp. salt, and the toasted fideo noodles. Stir.

Add a large (28 oz.) can of diced tomatoes (undrained). Stir. Let simmer 5 minutes.

Fill the empty tomato can with water and add to mixture (twice).

While the pot comes to a boil, chop up 2 bunches of fresh cilantro. It smells SO good!

We like ours with lots of cumin. I use a whole 1 oz. package of it for one pot.

Add half of the cumin now.

Add a tablespoon of black pepper.

Add half of the chopped cilantro right away.

Let the pot boil until the fideo noodles are cooked through.

When the noodles are tender, I turn off the heat, add the remainder

of my cumin and chopped cilantro, and give it all a good stir.

Lastly, I add a large container of chicken broth (32 oz.).

Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Add extra broth, as needed- it will thicken.

This soup is SO forgiving. It's our favorite. :)