The Best Vegan Tortilla Soup
on Mar 29, 2019, Updated Jul 24, 2024
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This vegan tortilla soup might just be the best you ever make! This recipe is healthy, gluten-free and easy to make with simple ingredients.
How to Make Vegan Tortilla Soup
First up, chop the onion, garlic and jalapeno and saute them in the olive oil until they’re soft and fragrant.
After they’ve softened, add the tortilla – yes, a WHOLE tortilla, a small one, like for tacos, chop it up and throw it in.
Add the spices, broth and diced tomatoes too. I like fire-roasted diced tomatoes best! You can use any vegetable stock or broth but I like this bouillon from Better than Bouillon.
Cook that up for 10 minute or so, a light simmer is perfect. It should be smelling pretty amazing by now!
After that has simmered a bit, add the cilantro and black beans and you’re almost there!
After you stir those in, you can either transfer about 2/3 of the soup to a blender and pulse a few times to smooth it out or use an immersion blender right in the pot.
Don’t completely pulverize it, a little chunkiness is good!
Best Tortilla Soup Toppings
As much as I love tortilla soup, I think the toppings might actually be my favourite part. Try topping your soup with:
- avocado
- cilantro
- lime
- crispy tortilla strips
- shredded vegan cheese
- vegan sour cream
How to Make Crispy Tortilla Strips
To make these amazing crispy, salted tortilla strips, I used my favourite white corn tortillas from La Tortilla Factory. These guys make a mean, authentic tortilla and they’re my go-to for tacos, burritos and other Mexican-inspired dishes.
They’re soft, thick and chewy and when fried in a pan, they puff up and come to a perfect crisp, absolutely perfect for adding to this soup! I also added 1 tortilla right into the soup and I think that really helped bring it all together!
Vegan Tortilla Soup Recipe
The best part of this tortilla soup? You only need a few simple ingredients and it can be ready in about 20 minutes. It’s super easy to make yet the flavour of this simple, vegan soup absolutely delivers.
More Healthy Soups
Loving this tortilla soups? Here are more delicious and healthy vegan soups to try:
- Butternut Squash Lentil Soup
- Curried Cauliflower Sweet Potato Soup
- Coconut Ginger Carrot Soup
- Easy Vegan Minestrone Soup
- Spicy Vegan Black Bean Soup
The Best Vegan Tortilla Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 small white onion, diced
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 jalapeño, seeded and diced
- 1 28 oz can diced tomatoes, fire-roasted if possible
- 2 cups vegetable stock
- 1 6-8 ” inch corn tortilla
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 19 oz can black beans, well rinsed and drained
- 1 cup cilantro, finely chopped
- juice from 1 lime
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Saute the onion, garlic and jalapeño in the olive oil for 5 minutes, stirring until soft and fragrant.
- Add the diced tomato, vegetable stock, tortilla, chili powder and garlic powder. Stir well and simmer over medium heat for 10 minutes.
- Stir in the black beans, cilantro and lime and simmer a few more minutes.
- Using an immersion blender or by placing most of the soup in a blender, blend just enough to ensure the tortilla has been blended completely into the soup. You want to leave it a little chunky.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve topped with avocado, cilantro, fresh lime and crispy tortilla strips.
Notes
Nutrition
This recipe was originally posted October 18, 2015. It was updated March 29, 2019 with new text and photos.
This is really good but it was way too sour with juice from one lime. I’d recommend starting with a half a lime and go from there. I was able to add a pinch of baking soda, a couple tsp of agave to balance the acid a bit more and it tasted great
Loved the recipe but didn’t have tortillas so I added corn meal instead and it turned out AMAZING!!! I also added pickled jalapenos instead.
Delicious! Glad you enjoyed it.
Wow! This is great! I did half chili powder and half an hour powder bc I like ancho. I just got hatch green chili powder in ( mild, but still very hot) and added 1/2 a tsp. Man this soup rocks! I love it!