Nachos (Tortilla) Soup

When I had my Tortilla Soup, we had guacamole and corn chips on the side. Once the tortillas were finished, I thought I’d try soaking my corn chips in the soup and was very pleased with the result so I thought to make it just with corn chips.

I’m so glad I was introduced to it because it is really easy and super cheap to make but one of the tastiest soups around.

It’s a great store-cupboard soup, the base ingredients are few and simple – then it’s up to you to get fancy if you wish. It’s also (like most soups) a good way of using up vegetables in your fridge that have seen better days.

I’ve separated out what I think are the essential ingredients (even with that, you could skip the tomato paste if you didn’t have any) and then put as additional the ingredients I used. It just so happened that I had two green capsicum and a red capsicum left in my fridge. Have a look through the recipes in the Tortilla Soup recipe blitz for more ideas of things you can use.

When I cooked the soup, it ended up being vegetarian because I omitted the chicken and used Massel’s chicken stock powder which is actually vegetarian (but it  tastes just like chicken stock). The lime is lovely, but they can be expensive and hard to find when not in season so I’ve put it in the optional section as it is still very nice without it.

Serves 4 (add more stock/tomato paste/tinned tomatoes if you need to feed more)

Base ingredients:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 x 400g can of chopped tomatoes
• 2 Tbsp Tomato paste
• 6 cups of chicken or vegetable stock (I used the Massel Chicken stock powder which is vegetarian and uses olive oil)
• 1 packet Natural Corn chips (Italian grocers sell them in big bags very cheaply) or 4 Flour Tortillas, baked or fried and cut into strips
• 1/2 cup – 1 cup of Tasty cheese, grated
• Olive oil for frying

Optional but nice ingredients

• 1 chili, chopped – keep in the seeds if you like it really hot, remove them if not (and use a mild variety of chili)
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 red capsicum, diced
• 2 green capsicums, diced
• 1 x 400g can of kidney (red) beans
• 1 whole chicken breast (optional)
• fresh coriander (or parsley) leaves, chopped for garnish
• 1 lime, cut into wedges
• sour cream

1. In a soup pot, heat some oil and fry onions until golden, then add capsicum, garlic, chilli and cumin and cook until softened slightly.

2. Add chopped tomatoes and cook for about 3 minutes.

3. Add stock, kidney beans, tomato paste and chicken (if you’re using it).

4. Keep on a medium high heat until it starts to boil, then turn down the heat and let simmer for 15-30 minutes.

5. If you added chicken, take it out when done and shred the meat with your fingers.

6. Ladle the soup into bowls, top with cheese, sour cream, coriander/parsley and corn chips (or your shredded tortillas). Give everyone a lime wedge each!

Tagged as: can of tomato, recipe, soup, tortilla soup