Easy Tortilla Soup Recipe

Although I like this Tortilla Soup Recipe I posted awhile back, it required fairly specific ingredients and took a fair amount of time to put together. This week I made a stripped-down version that also turned out well.

Ingredients:

-Whatever you have on hand that seems appropriate: I used leftover organic green and yellow bell peppers, tomatoes, and red onions from our Valentine's Dinner.

-2-3 jalepeno peppers

-1 can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes and green chiles (from Trader Joe's, you could use something similar from another store)

-1 can of water

-stale tortilla chips

-avocado, rice, lime, other garnish as desired (optional)

Directions:

Chop vegetables and saute in oil until soft. Add canned tomatoes and can of water. Crumble several handfuls of stale or fresh tortilla chips into the soup. Blend with a hand mixer. Simmer until warmed through. Serve over rice if desired or with avocado or lime. This tastes better the next day after the flavors have had a chance to meld.

Allergy Friendly Tortilla Soup Recipe

Tortilla soup is a great way to use up leftover corn tortillas. Although it is dairy, soy and casein free, the pureed tortillas give the soup a rich creamy texture. The amount of spice and heat can be adjusted to your taste. Especially delicious on cold winter nights!

Ingredients

• cooking oil
• 8-12 corn tortillas
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 4-6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 serrano peppers, seeds removed, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, diced
• 1-2 lbs boneless chicken thighs
• 6 cups water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 2-3 tomatoes, chopped
• bunch of fresh cilantro
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tbs paprika
• optional garnish: lime wedges, extra cilantro, cheese, sour cream, avocado, tortilla strips

Directions

Start the chicken.

Place chicken, salt, pepper, half the onion, half the bell pepper, half the garlic, and all the water into a pot. Bring slowly to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 1 to 1.5 hours. When finished, the meat will be tender to the point of shredding. Save the broth to incorporate into the soup.

Toast or fry the tortillas.

I like to toast the tortillas in the toaster oven (no extra fat from frying), but if you prefer you can cut them into strips and fry them before adding to the soup. If you toast them, you can just crumble them into pieces over the pot when it is time to add them.

Start the soup.

In large pot, heat several tbs. of cooking oil. Add onions, garlic and peppers, saute for 5 minutes. Add tomato, broth from the chicken, fried tortilla strips or crumbled toasted tortillas, and spices. Simmer, cooking uncovered for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and puree the soup (I use a stick blender but you can use a regular blender if needed). Add the chicken and cilantro. Heat until evenly warm.

Enjoy!