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.
I am absolutely addicted to this recipe. I prep a few meals each weekend and freeze them, so that I can have a variety of lunch and dinner options available, since I get sick of eating the same thing over and over again. I could not bring myself to freeze any of this one – I just keep eating it! I used just one jalapeno, and it was very spicy just like that (I am not very tolerant of spicy foods). I am am interested in trying to prepare this with ancho chile to give a smokey flavor to it. I have been to Mexico several times, and this tasted very similar to the “sopa azteca” I crave whenever I go there. Building my shopping list now to make a double-batch of it next week!
Thanks. What a tasty quick, full meal. One problem. Two big serving bowls at one sitting. I justified calling the second bowl dessert. So good.
This is on regular rotation for us! So simple and delicious!
Great! So glad you enjoy it. Thanks for letting me know!
I have made it twice and it is AMAZING! I Thought the second time I made it, that it would let me down cause I was so hyped and remembered how good it was the first time…but no…it’s even better. Thanks for the recipe!!
Taste was good.
That said, be careful with the spice. My chili powder is more powerful that average and I think my jalapenos may have been on the spicy side (even though I used less than called for). Otherwise, good. I didn’t have corn tortillas so I just used some old corn chips and put them in early enough that they could soften before blending. I also added some corn.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the feedback on the spice.
This soup is fantastic! My family loves it and it’s become our weekly Saturday meal.
Wonderful! So glad to hear that.
Flavorful & easy. Tried making for my wife & daughter who eat little or no meat and I ate most of it myself!
Haha, glad to hear it! Thanks for letting me know!
Another winner!!! So delicious, my 10 year old devoured it, and she claimed she hated tortilla soup from a bad experience with her dad. I will definitely make this again!!!
Can you make this in a crockpot? How would I go about that if I can?
Well it doesn’t really need to cook much so it’s not ideal for a crockpot but you could out everything in and cook on low for a couple hours, then proceed with blending. I haven’t tried it though so can’t guarantee anything. Thanks!
My kids were extremely impressed by this recipe, so I have to rate it! It deserves all 5 stars. In order to play into my laziness, I used a big can of crushed tomatoes instead and that allowed me to skip the partial blending step…it worked great! Also, I have to recommend an addition of corn. It plays into the flavor profile really well and adds some visual
Interest.
Thanks, Deryn, for another great recipe!
Awesome! Totally agree, corn is a great addition! So glad you and the kids enjoyed it. Thanks for letting me know, I appreciate it!