Make This Now: Spicy Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

I’m gonna be honest, I don’t have a lot of confidence in my soup-cooking abilities. So when this one turned out delicious, I was extremely excited.

The other day I got a craving for tortilla soup, but my favorite part of tortilla soup is the vegetables, not the chicken, so I thought… well, could I make it vegetarian?

A google search told me yes, but none of the recipes had all of what I wanted, some had weird ingredients I didn’t want to have to shop for, and a lot of them used canned… everything.

So I made up my own recipe. Which means I don’t have measurements. Here is a rough estimation.

Ingredients

3 Tbsp Olive oil
1 Yellow Onion, large chopped pieces
4 large roma tomatoes, cut into eighths
1 large clove of garlic
2 and half stalks of celery, half-inch slices
1 Green Bell Pepper, inch-sized pieces
1 Red Bell Pepper, inch-sized pieces
1 Large Carrot, half-inch slices
1 Medium sized Zucchini (thickness however you like)
1 Jalapeno (I sliced mine but I would suggest cutting yours really small. Biting into a jalapeno is never fun.)
1 Quart/32 OZ vegetable stock
Cumin to taste (approximately 2 Tbsp for me)
Chili powder to taste (approximately 2 Tbsp for me)
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

Optional toppings:
Tortilla chips/baked-til-crispy tortilla
Cheese
Sour cream
Avocado

To make it, saute the onions, celery, and tomatoes in a big pot. Add garlic. Add bell peppers and carrot, pour vegetable stock in. Season a little bit. When you feel like the heartier vegetables are well on their way, add zucchini and jalapeno (add as much jalapeno as you dare — buahahaha). Season until you like the taste. If you feel like you’re tasting too much vegetable stock still, try smashing all the veggies (once they’ve been cooking some, but before they get too soft) with a potato masher, then add more salt, cumin, chili powder. Cook until the vegetables are at the softness you like them and top with tortilla chips.

Super easy, and SO TASTY. It was so tasty I texted my friend and demanded she came over to help me eat it (Mark is at work right now.)

Things to Consider:
Maybe add corn? Mark hates corn so I didn’t put it in there.
If you like beans, you could definitely add beans.
This is actually vegan. I just didn’t call it that because I added cheese to mine when I served it. Yum.