Mexican tomato and bean soup

This fresh, piquant soup combines many of the ingredients you might find in a feisty salsa, but in this case they're all "souped up". Add more chillies if you like it hot; a handful of fresh sweetcorn kernels, sliced straight from the cob, is a good addition, too. Serves four to six.

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil

2 red onions, peeled and finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

1-2 medium-hot fresh green chillies, such as jalapeño, deseeded and finely chopped

½ tsp ground cumin

600ml vegetable stock

200ml tomato passata, or sieved, roasted tomatoes

400g ripe tomatoes, cored, deseeded and finely chopped

400g tin black beans or black-eyed beans, drained and rinsed

1 handful fresh oregano leaves, roughly chopped

Pinch of sugar

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Juice of 1 lime

1 small handful fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped

To finish

4-6 tbsp soured cream (optional)

1 small handful fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped

Heat the oil in a saucepan over a medium-low heat and sauté most of the onion (reserve a little for garnish at the end), stirring from time to time, for about five minutes, until softened. Add the garlic, chillies and cumin, and stir for a minute. Add the stock, passata, fresh tomatoes, beans, oregano and sugar, season and bring to a boil. Simmer gently for 10 minutes, remove from the heat and add the lime juice and coriander. Adjust the seasoning to taste.

Serve topped with dollops of soured cream, if you like, and scattered with more coriander and freshly ground pepper.