Mexican Tortilla Soup

I’ve been making this recipe for years and of all the soups I love to make, this one gets eaten the quickest! This recipe is easy, quick, packed full of veggies, and sure to make your favorites list. Gone are the days of plain old tacos on Tuesdays. Spice up your “Taco Tuesday” routine with a go-to soup. It’s good for your soul after all!

This post contains affiliate links. See my full disclosure here.

I have made soups that take all day to simmer, or way too much prep, but this one doesn’t require much attention and comes together pretty quickly.

Mexican food is our favorite, so I have an arsenal of recipes to help switch things up. I typically use whatever we have on hand to figure out what I will make for dinner, and the stars aligned this week so I could bring you this new spin on a taco soup!

My favorite part of this recipe is that there is no tedious chopping!

First start off by placing your pot over a medium heat. While my pot is warming up (I like to use my dutch oven for soups), chop the vegetables. They do not need to be small!!! What?! You heard me right. No reason to nearly chop off your fingers, and children could even do this with you! We will be blending these veggies later so the size doesn’t matter.

Next you will add the onions, celery, and garlic to your pot with the olive oil. You can use any oil here, but I prefer cooking with this organic extra virgin olive oil. I have used both butter and ghee before and it did not change the flavor.

Cook the vegetable mixture, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are translucent and soft. If they get a little brown, no biggie. When they are soft, remove them from heat to let them cool off. At this point you are going to pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees and place your corn tortillas directly on the oven rack. I find that they are crunchy around 12 minutes, but every oven is different. They cook quickly, so be sure to check on them frequently. This is probably the most time consuming step in this whole process!

I like to add extra tortillas to save for scooping up soup once it is finished. Just make sure you only add three tortillas when it is time and save the rest for the good part (the eatin’)!

Add your cooled off vegetables, both cans of diced tomatoes (don’t drain), and crispy tortillas to a blender. If you have a Vitamix you can add warm/hot vegetables and skip the cooling, but mine isn’t so fancy and conveniently my immersion blender broke. I typically do all of this right in my pot with the immersion blender, but decided to give it a whirl in my Ninja Blender. I wasn’t dissapointed. I really love the smooth blend that I got and will definitely use it again.

If you used a blender like I did, pour that mixture back into your pot. I am all about reducing dishes, so I used the same pot to cook my vegetables and for this final cooking stage of the soup.

The final step is to add all of the remaining ingredients; chicken or vegetable broth, chicken, beans, and seasonings. Don’t forget the seasonings!

I cook a whole chicken almost every week and then make a bone broth out of the carcass. I highly suggest making your own bone broth! It completely elevates the flavor in every dish. This recipe used up some chicken and the broth. If you would like to make it vegan, you can omit the chopped chicken and use a vegetable broth instead.

Let it all simmer for about 15 minutes and then serve! I love to add crumbled sheeps milk feta and fresh cilantro when it is in season. My husband insists that all soups are really just a dip and devours this soup with lots and lots of tortilla chips.

It may not look the tastiest, but it is one of the best soup recipes I have! You probably won’t have leftovers, but if you do this soup can be stored in the fridge for 5 days or in the freezer in a freezer safe bag or container for 6 months. Simply thaw and enjoy when the time is right!