Tortilla Soup

What I really love about this soup is that I can sneak tons of veggies into my boyfriend’s diet without him knowing it. Normally he would not come anywhere near mushrooms, peppers, celery, and especially not beans. I must admit that if you are going to try to hide the beans in this recipe you need to add them to the soup base and puree them all the way. When I make if for my boyfriend I also add 1 poached chicken breast at the end with the corn and he loves it! Truthfully, I prefer it vegetarian as in the following recipe but feel free to customize it for your tastes.

This recipe is just a tiny bit spicy, if you want it not spicy just leave out the cayenne pepper and make sure to get mild chili powder.

While it’s names comes from the tortilla chips normally added to this soup, I made them optional. This soup is really good with or without them.

Makes: 6 cups

Preparation time: 5m
Cooking time: 5m
Total time: 12m

Ingredients:

  • 1 medium tomato (quartered)
  • 1 carrot (halved and cut into 2” pieces)
  • 1 yellow summer squash (chopped into 2” pieces)
  • 2 shiitake mushrooms (quartered)
  • 1 red bell pepper (chopped into 2" pieces)
  • 1 small shallot (halved)
  • 1/2 teaspoon chile powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon cumin
  • 1/8 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/8 teaspoon dried coriander
  • 1/8 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/8 teaspoon garlic granules
  • 1 cup frozen corn (thawed)
  • 1 can black beans (rinsed and drained)
  • 1 avocado
  • tortilla chips (optional)
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (or dried red pepper flakes)
  • 3 cups low-sodium vegetable stock
  • 1 celery stalk (chopped into 2” pieces)
  • 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt (e.g. kosher salt)

Equipment: Vitamix or other blender

Instructions:

  1. First make the soup base: add the vegetable stock, tomato, mushrooms, carrot, celery stalk, yellow squash, red bell pepper, small shallot, salt, chili powder, cumin, paprika, coriander, oregano, garlic powder and cayenne to the blender and puree on high until smooth. If using a Vitamix, puree on high for 5 minutes to heat up.
  2. Add the corn and beans to the blender and process on the lowest setting for 30-60 seconds just to chop them up a little bit.
  3. If using a Vitamix you can pour the soup into bowls and proceed to step 4. If using a regular blender, put the soup into a sauce pan and heat on the stove top to desired temperature, then pour into bowls.
  4. Top with sliced avocado and crumbled tortilla chips. Enjoy!

UPDATE Recently (since having a toddler) I've been pouring the soup into a saucepan and adding sliced zucchini, carrots, corn and cooked chicken then simmering it for about 10 minutes. My toddler has a much easier time with chunky soups and my husband likes it better this way too.