Tacos are my favorite food, so when my friend Amanda convinced me to make a vegetarian tortilla soup, I had to dive right in! Between the spice blend, the slight kick from the peppers, and the freedom to top how I choose, I was hooked at first bite. Hope you enjoy this healthy tortilla soup recipe that will bring the whole family to the table.
My body feels better when I limit gluten so I love when I find a naturally gluten-free dinner that my whole family will eat without complaining. This soup is filling and tasty!
Table of Contents
Ingredients in Healthy Tortilla Soup
This creamy soup is made with a rainbow of ingredients, my favorite kind of meal! Let’s highlight a few of these rawesome ingredients:
- Avocado oil: Healthy fats can easily be added to soups when using them to sauté veggies. Avocado or olive oil are great choices for this recipe.
- Tortilla chips: Since this tortilla soup is vegan, the tortilla chips have a unique purpose. They are actually softened in the soup, then blended all together to become a delightfully creamy meal. You can also use them as a crunchy topping when serving.
- Yellow onion: I love the pop of flavor in yellow onions and use them in most of my cooking.
- Poblano + Jalapeño peppers: I use one of each in this healthy tortilla soup recipe because poblanos bring just a bit of heat but an earthy, smoky flavor while jalapeños do pack a spicy punch. If you are sensitive to spice then omit the jalapeño altogether.
- Vegetable stock: Once I learned how to save my vegetable scraps and turn them into homemade stock, I no longer buy it from the store. If using store-bought, make sure it doesn’t have any additives and check the amount of sodium.
- Cilantro: Fresh herbs are naturally medicinal as well as provide excellent flavors. If cilantro isn’t your favorite herb then swap it with parsley.
- Bay leaves: These unique leaves add a lovely floral and thyme flavor to foods, yet you don’t eat them. Just toss in 1-2 leaves to a soup pot then remove before serving (or in this case, remove before blending).
Recipe Swaps
Soup is so easy to customize! If onions aren’t your thing, then swap the onion out for 1 cup of leeks. If you don’t want any spicy peppers, swap the 2 peppers out for 1/2 red or orange bell pepper.
You can also cut back on the spices as you taste test, to find the perfect amount of spice for you. I roll with the spice train, so I often add a bit more than this vegetarian tortilla soup recipe recommends, yet you can add less too!
If you don’t want the corn tortilla chips or need to cut back on the sodium they bring, opt for a salt-free chip, or a good plantain chip. Trader Joe’s has a wide variety of plantain chips that I’ve been working through, and they’re all good!
Tips for the Best Soup
As I mentioned above, the tortilla chips help turn this vegetable soup into a creamy dish. Don’t forget to add them during the cooking stage so they can soften before blending.
The spices in this recipe come alive even more if you make it ahead of time and let sit in the fridge overnight. Your tastebuds will thank you!
I find this to be a filling recipe, yet it is a bit light on the protein. That is easily remedied by adding rinsed, cooked black beans or cashew cream when serving.
Sautéing the onion, garlic and peppers before adding in the spices and stock also produces a tastier result. Don’t skip this quick step!
Soup Toppings
One reason soup makes a great family meal is that it’s super easy to customize with toppings. If you’ve got a kid who needs cheese on everything, then use this soup as the base and let ’em go wild! This soup is perfect for the chip lover too, just grab your favorite chips and dip away. Here are some recommended toppings for my vegetarian tortilla soup recipe:
- Freshly squeezed lime juice
- Diced jalepeños or another spicy pepper
- Cashew cream
- Crumbled tortilla chips or plantain chips
- Cilantro
- Hot sauce
- Diced avocados
- Sweet corn
- Cooked, drained black beans
Really, the possibilities are endless. If you like it on your tacos then you’ll probably like it in this healthy tortilla soup.
Vegetarian Tortilla Soup FAQs
My recipe uses tortilla chips to cream up the recipe in a dairy-free way. I also top with cashew cream, a delightful substitute for sour cream.
I love a creamy soup, and this one is no different. After sautéing the vegetables and simmering on the stove with tortilla chips, I use an immersion blender to puree the contents of the soup pot. The tortilla chips help thicken the soup nicely, without having to add any dairy products.
Depending on whether you like your soup spicy or on the sweeter side, there are a variety of great toppings for this soup. I use fresh chopped jalapeños, sweet corn, cashew cream, cilantro and a squeeze of lime juice.
Batch Cooking Soup
Because soup often takes a lot of ingredients and time to make, I almost always make extra. I then freeze the leftovers in single-serving containers (usually wide-mouth mason jars). This way, I can easily grab a nutritious, hot lunch in the days and weeks to come.
Depending on your family size, double or triple this tortilla soup recipe. Your future self will thank you for the pre-prepped meal!
More Soup Recipes
I love soup, and chilly nights have me whipping up loads of different recipes. Soup doesn’t have to be boring, and it doesn’t need meat to be flavorful! Here are my top soup recipes:
- Vegan Pumpkin Soup
- Vegan Minestrone Soup
- Carrot Ginger Soup
- Thai Coconut Soup
- Vegetable Barley Soup
- Bell Pepper and Sweet Potato Soup
- Vegetarian Split Pea Soup
- Red Lentil Soup
Seriously, it’s hard for me to find a soup I don’t love. What is your favorite soup recipe? I’d love for you to leave a comment to let me know. Don’t forget to rate this fun vegetarian tortilla soup recipe after you’ve tried it!
Vegetarian Tortilla Soup
Equipment
- stove
- immersion blender
Ingredients
- 2 cups tortilla chips
- 2 tbsps avocado oil
- 1 yellow onion diced
- 1 poblano pepper diced
- ½ jalapeño pepper
- 4 garlic cloves crushed and chopped
- 1 tbsp smoked paprika
- 2 tsps cumin ground
- 1 tsp chili powder
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- 6 cups vegetable stock
- 28 oz can diced tomatoes canned
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tbsps cilantro
- 2 ½ tsps sea salt
Instructions
- In a large stock pot, heat two tablespoons of oil to medium/low. Add the onion, garlic, poblano pepper and jalapeño pepper and cook for five minutes. After five minutes, add spices and cook for another five.
- Add stock, tomatoes, bay leaves, salt, cilantro leaves, and 1/4 of the tortilla strips. Bring to a simmer. Cook uncovered for 30 minutes then remove bay leaves.
- Puree the soup with an immersion blender. If you want your soup to be thicker, you can always add more tortilla strips. And then you're ready to serve! I usually serve the soup with lime, corn, cilantro, jalapeno peppers, avocado and the remaining tortilla.
Notes
- You can also use a regular blender, and carefully puree in batches.
- Serve with the toppings of your choice.
- To tone down the spice, omit the jalapeño.
- Make a day ahead for an even better flavor.
- Cool completely then freeze in mason jars to enjoy in the weeks to come.
I love this soup. I made it for supper tonight and topped it with fresh jalapenos, tortilla strips, and avocado. It was really easy to make and tastes wonderful. Will definitely make this again and again.
Sounds delish, Carol!
Easy to make, but just didn’t appeal to me, as well as the other students in this challenge. It may be better with the toppings. I made a double batch, which I will definitely be sharing with others.
The toppings definitely take this one over the top!
This super-fragrant soup is easy to make and a great base for your favorite toppings. Like other reviewers, I think is good but certainly better with some extras. I added fresh lime juice, cilantro chimichurri, avocado and pepitas. Home run!
Sounds delish, Peggy!
Spicy good and easy to make.
Love to hear this!
Didn’t know you could add tortilla chips in the soup to thicken it. Very delicious!
Glad you found this one delish, Yayoi!!
Way too much garlic for my taste. Although not bland it tasted too commercial, I missed the “special” aspect. It said duplicate comment when I tried to post it, but it’s not, I’m just being honest about my review!
Way too much garlic for my taste. Although not bland it tasted too commercial, I missed the “special” aspect.
You can definitely reduce the garlic in this one for your taste, Willow!
Delicious! I used the jalapeño per the recipe, but with no seeds or ribs. I got all the flavor without the heat! Just add a little shredded chicken and this will work for the meat lovers in your life. I topped with a little cashew cream, gluten free tortilla chips & avocado. Can’t wait to have it for lunch tomorrow!
I usually take out the seeds and ribs too, Lori! Love jalapenos but don’t want toooo much of the heat!
I am cooking out of order because I haven’t gone to the market yet and I am trying to clean out the veggies before they go by. This is another soup that I added a bit of chicken for for my husband. Also I didn’t have tortilla chips so I used hemp noodles. I also used more of the hot garlic. This is a very good recipe and I made enough to add some to the freezer.
Sounds delish, Helyn!
Another winner for me! I love the flavor combination of spices.
Meant to give it 5 stars but it posted before I did that!
Thanks so much for the five stars, Becky!
So glad you think this one was a winner too, Becky!
Warm, spicy, fragrant, smoky, filling and HOT! This soup was a joy to make, instructions were clear and I had most of the ingredients to hand already. I chose to add a few extra chips to make it thick and hearty. The perfect starter for taco Tuesday!
Perfect for Taco Tuesday is right, K.B.! Especially when the weather finally cools down!
Meh!
Thanks for the feedback on the Tortilla soup, Ingrid!
This is a decent base recipe, and I enjoyed the soup, but couldn’t help feeling like it was missing something flavor wise for me.
Loved this one! I wanted more flavor in the broth so I used Edward & Sons Not Chick’n bouillon cubes. I also wanted some texture so I only pureed half of the soup. Yum, Yum!
This soup has a kick that’s too strong for me. Or maybe the chili powder that I chose was too hot.
But, this soup brings new flavor to my taste buds experience. I like it.
Easy to make and very delicious! My favorite ingredients brought together for a wonderful warm you up feeling on a cold day.