The Best Vegan Tortilla Soup
on Mar 29, 2019, Updated Jan 06, 2025
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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
- Vegan Enchilada Soup
More Recipes to Try!
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.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
This recipe was originally posted October 18, 2015. It was updated March 29, 2019 with new text and photos.
This is now my favorite soup. We have it about once a week! I leave out the jalapeño because my kids wouldn’t eat it if I did put it in. I have recommended this soup to our friends and family. It’s so easy and quick to make as well as being incredibly delicious. Thank you sooo much for sharing this!
Thanks so much for letting me know! It made my day to hear that!
So delicious it has become a staple!!!
Woohoo!! Soooo happy to hear that! I need to make this again stat. 😉
Love this soup!!! Also good for weight watchers if you leave out tortillas, oil and avocado…
This recipe is phenomenal!!! Seriously, I like it jist as much or more than the traditional tortilla soup! I didn’t blend the soup or add the tortilla just because like all the textures of the soup. I also added a cup and a half of mire veggie broth and fresh corn that’s in season now. I’m on my second serving now!!! Thanks so much!!!
Yay, SO happy to hear you liked it! It’s one of my favourites too. The flavour is awesome.
(: My cousin sent me this recipe, and I looooove it. I used the fire-roasted tomatoes, a 15-oz can of beans because I couldn’t find 19oz, and a can of drained/rinsed corn plus one cup of additional vegetable broth to make up for the extra bulk of the corn. I feel like you can’t have tortilla soup without corn, so it was necessary in my opinion. It was really easy and really fast, and the fire-roasted tomatoes make it very flavorful without too much effort. Tiny little note: If you can find a 19oz can of beans, use it, because my only small complaint is that it could have a few more beans. My fault though, because I used less beans and added corn.
A+++++ Yum yum!
Amazing! Thanks for the great review and reminder I need to make these ASAP!!
I’m making this for dinner tonight! It tastes great! I didn’t have any fresh cilantro, so I used dry and it was still very good. Thank you for this recipe!
This is soooo delicious! I added the chili powder and garlic to the onions so they could cook a little, and used we my own jarred tomatoes (aunty Lee would be proud!) But followed this exactly, and it’s amazing!!
Wonderful. So glad you enjoyed it!
Hello Running on Real Food! I just put down my spoon to contact you!! This soup is so so delicious. I have been vegan for almost one year and have tried dozens of recipes both cooked and raw and none have tasted so good nor have been as satisfying as this tortilla soup. I’ll be excited to try it with fresh sun ripened tomatoes this summer. It’s a perfect dish. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
This looks absolutely delicious.
This looks delicious. Yum!