Pork & Chorizo Soup

It all started with the soup I thought I ordered, but not the one that was delivered to me.  My husband and I were on a weekend getaway to the beautiful city of Portland, and stopped at a cute little place that had a warm and smoky bbq scent wafting out the door. Letting my husband follow his nose and chose the place, we went inside.  It was just the kind of place that appeals to a girl with its great decor and warm service, and a meat loving guy who just wanted some pulled pork.  It turns out that the bbq scent was from the wood fired pizza oven, but the place was enough to make us want to stay.

I ordered the soup 'of the day' which was pork and chorizo soup... now that sounded like something I would like!  Right before our meal came out, the server stopped by and mentioned that she was wrong about the soup... it was Pork and Garbanzo bean soup.  Well... not exactly what my taste buds were hankering for at this point, but hey, I'm on vacation and feeling relaxed.  The soup was really quite good, brothy with tender bits of pork, nice veggies and about 3 garbanzos!  I laughed, and kept thinking about what the soup should have been.

Right before we left for our getaway, I took a 2 lb. pork tenderloin out of the freezer, anticipating that it would be ready to go for dinner on the day we got home.  Nope, that thing was frozen solid!  Today is Monday, and I decided to have another go at it... still kind of icy, not great for roasting...  Hmmmm, what to do, what to do.... I know SOUP!  I had some turkey chorizo sausage in the fridge and everything else I needed for soup already on hand.  I still have enough Pork to make another meal... so stay tuned for that one!

Here's the soup that I really wanted at that restaurant, but had to invent myself.

Ingredients:
6-8 oz pork tenderloin, sliced thin and shredded into small pieces
12 oz. chorizo sausages (or Linguisa Portguese sausage)
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
3 medium carrots, diced
3-4 celery stalks, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 orange bell pepper, diced
1 Tbsp garlic, minced
1 15oz can garbanzo beans, drained
1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes
6 cups of chicken broth, or beef broth, or combination
1 Tbsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 Tbsp hot sauce, (Durkee's Red Hot is my favorite)
Fresh Ground pepper and salt, to taste

Chop the onion and saute in the olive oil.  Add the carrots, bell pepper and celery and cook until the onions and celery are starting to get translucent. 

Add the garlic and the smoked paprika.  Add the sliced sausage and the shredded pork.  Let this cook about 5 minutes, ot until the pork is no longer pink colored. 

Add the broth, and the cans of diced tomatoes, including juice.  Drain the garbanzo beans and add those too. 

I added the Durkee's Hot Sauce to give it a little spice, and a little tang.  If you don't want it to be too spicy, you could add a tablespoon of vinegar instead.  It needs a little acid tang to give it the taste you want.

Let the soup simmer for about 30-45 minutes, and serve.  It's a nice soup with a great broth, and it's not too thick.  If you prefer a thicker soup, you could add a diced potato, or even some noodles- but this is nice with just meat and veggies!