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Tortilla Soup
Our take on sopa de tortilla is a simple, homestyle tortilla soup like the one made for us by home cook Jazmín Martínez in Mexico City. It is pureed for smoothness; contrasting colors, flavors and textures are added with garnishes. For the best results, ripe tomatoes are key—in non-summer months, we find Campari tomatoes to be a good option, as well as cherry or grape tomatoes. The tomatoes need only to be cored before they’re tossed into the pot (cherry or grape tomatoes can be used whole). Tortilla chips, called totopos in Mexico, are used in two ways: they’re cooked and pureed with the base to thicken the soup, then fresh chips are added to the serving bowls before the soup is ladled in.
4-6
Servings
Tip
Don’t blend all of the soup mixture at once. If the blender jar is too full with hot liquid, when the machine is turned on, the rapid burst of steam may loosen the lid and cause splattering.
40 minutes
Ingredients
-
2
tablespoons lard or neutral oil
-
1
large white onion, halved and thinly sliced
Directions
-
01In a large pot over medium-high, heat the lard until shimmering. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, jalapeños, cumin and cilantro stems, then cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the tomatoes, tortilla chips, broth and sugar. Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce to medium and cook, stirring, at a simmer, until the tomatoes have softened and their skins begin to peel away, about 10 minutes.
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October 14, 2022
Excellent!
After enjoying this amazing soup for several meals, and not that it needed it but we added some leftover cubed Delicata squash. It added a nice balancing sweetness to the soup…very good!
October 14, 2022
May be my Favorite Recipe on Milk Street
And I love so many of them! I am making vegan tortilla soup for vegan friends so I made some garlic broth as the base and the rest was easy to follow - had fire roasted tomatoes on hand so thats what I used. I can't wait to share this with them!!
December 2, 2022
Chilly night and warm soup
Big on flavor and quick to put together at the end of the day. (I'm not a huge garlic fan and I thought the garlic was too strong but my friends disagreed and said it was perfect.)
June 23, 2022
The best tortilla soup
One of the best, most reliable recipes for tortilla soup. I add shredded rotisserie chicken
March 19, 2024
Easy & Amazing
This recipe is simple and always a crowd pleaser!
Can canned whole tomatoes be used instead or with the supermarket tomatoes? The supermarket tomatoes tend to be pretty bland and mushy.
Hi Thomas -
As you'll see in the note above, for this recipe we recommend ripe tomatoes. If you're lucky, you can still get some great fresh tomatoes at a local market or farmers market right now as the season is just winding down. If not, we recommend Campari, grape, or cherry tomatoes. We find these are still pretty flavorful even in the winter months.
Best,
The Milk Street Team
A nice quick version of a recipe that can take a while to prepare. I used half supermarket tomatoes and a can of whole tomatoes and it came out tasting really good. I appreciate that the whole cilantro is used too. I could not find cumin seeds but the ground stuff worked OK. A splash of lime on when serving it added a nice flavor. I used an immersion blender and that probably cut some of the time. Just be careful not to splash any of the hot soup.
Are the chips added to the recipe whole or crushed slightly? That would make a huge difference. 2 cups of the tortilla chips I have would be very few. Please specify or give weight. Thanks Milk Street!
I was excited to try this blended version of tortilla soup, as I have only had the broth-based soup before while living in Texas. It was so delicious and easy to make! I used grape tomatoes and added a squeeze of lime at the end, which really rounded out the soup nicely. An immersion blender is your best friend when making this type of soup :)
Holy what? this soup is amazing. I have been trying to perfect real tortilla soup for 25 years. I made two versions, because I have vegetarian friends. I preferred theirs more. Used zoup veggie broth, Campari tomatoes on the vine (I just took off stem and cut into quarters. Used serrano chilis as I was out of jalapeños. Amazing. I too w Mexican crema, cilantro, white onion and home fried tortillas (makes a difference with everything).
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This recipe was delicious. So simple and fresh. Great recipe if you have an abundance of tomatoes from your garden. Nice change from other tortilla soups.