This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
Table of Contents
Tacos are my favorite food, so when my friend Amanda mentioned I should expand my horizons with a vegetarian tortilla soup, I was up for the challenge. Between the rich spice blend, slight kick from the peppers, and variety of toppings, I knew this new healthy soup creation was gonna be a winner.
Ingredients in Vegetarian Tortilla Soup
This flavorful soup is made with a rainbow of vegetables seasoned to perfection, 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).
Ingredients Swaps
- 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!
How to Make Vegetarian Tortilla Soup
- In a large stock pot, heat avocado oil over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, poblano pepper, and jalapeno pepper, and cook for five minutes. Sautéing the onion, garlic and peppers is so important to the depth of the flavors in this soup.
- Add spices and cook for five more minutes. Add stock, tomatoes, bay leaf, salt, cilantro leaves, and tortilla strips. Bring to a simmer. Cook, uncovered, for 30 minutes, remove bay leaves. The tortilla chips help turn this vegetable soup into a creamy dish. Adding them during the cooking stage helps them soften before blending.
- Puree the soup with an immersion blender. If you want your soup to be thicker, add more tortilla strips.
- Drain corn. Ladle soup into bowls and add toppings.
How to increase protein
Try adding black beans, cashew cream (or a ground turkey or shredded chicken option if you aren’t vegetarian). This will increase the protein without affecting the flavor.
Vegetarian Tortilla 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 hot sauce
- Cashew cream or sour cream
- Crumbled tortilla chips
- Cilantro
- Diced avocados
- Sweet corn
- Cooked, drained black beans
Really, the possibilities are endless. If you like it on tacos then you’ll probably like it in this tortilla soup.
Common Questions
Use vegetable stock and skip the meat to make a vegetarian tortilla soup. Traditional tortilla soup uses chicken broth and shredded chicken breast. You can also skip the cheese and sour cream if you’re vegan and use a cashew 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 Tortilla 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 Souper Cubes). This way, I can easily reheat and have 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 Healthy 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 some more soup recipes:
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 healthy vegetarian tortilla soup recipe after you’ve tried it!
Vegetarian Tortilla Soup
Ingredients
- 1 cups tortilla chips
- 1 tbsp avocado oil
- 1 yellow onion diced
- 1 poblano pepper diced
- ½ jalapeño pepper
- 3 garlic cloves crushed and chopped
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp cumin ground
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 4 cups vegetable stock
- 2 cups diced tomatoes canned
- 1 bay leaves
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro
- 1 tsp sea salt
Toppings
- ¾ cup corn canned
- 1 avocado diced
- 2 cups tortilla chips
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro leaves only
Instructions
- In a large stock pot, heat avocado oil over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, poblano pepper, and jalapeno pepper, and cook for five minutes.
- Add spices and cook for five more minutes. Add stock, tomatoes, bay leaf, salt, cilantro leaves, and tortilla strips. Bring to a simmer. Cook, uncovered, for 30 minutes, remove bay leaves.
- Puree the soup with an immersion blender. If you want your soup to be thicker, add more tortilla strips.
- Drain corn. Ladle soup into bowls and add toppings.
Equipment
Notes
- You can also use a regular blender, and carefully puree in batches.
- To tone down the spice, omit the jalapeño.
- Make a day ahead for an even better flavor.
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.