Name: Vegetarian Tortilla Soup
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 35 min
Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients: 6 6-inch corn tortillas; Olive oil; Kosher salt; 1 yellow onion; 1 green bell pepper; 4 medium garlic cloves; 2 15-ounce cans black beans; 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing; 2 teaspoons dried oregano; 1 teaspoon cumin; 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes; 1½ cups frozen corn ( fire roasted, if possible); 1 tablespoon adobo sauce (from 1 can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce); 1 quart (4 cups) vegetable broth; 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling; 4 radishes, for garnish; 1 lime, for garnish; 1 handful cilantro, for garnish

This vegetarian tortilla soup is so flavorful and quick! It’s an easy healthy soup recipe from the popular Pretty Simple Cooking cookbook.

Ready for an easy healthy soup that tastes so flavorful you’d think it’s been simmering all day? Meet our Vegetarian Tortilla Soup! Ready in a little over 30 minutes, it’s full of flavor and one of our favorites for a rainy afternoon. This vegetarian tortilla soup is also vegan and gluten-free, so it fits a variety of diets.

I was recently at an elementary school Career Day and showed the video below to a room of 5th graders: this soup got VERY enthusiastic responses. (“It looks so good! I want to make it!”) We’ve tested our vegetarian tortilla soup on all sorts of kiddos so we think it’s kid-friendly as well. Keep reading for the recipe.

Watch how to make vegetarian tortilla soup

Words are helpful to describe food and cooking, but seeing the process is even more powerful. We wanted to give you a glimpse of what a recipe from Pretty Simple Cooking looks like in person, and we chose this vegetarian tortilla soup. It’s one of our favorite quick soups that also turns out beautiful with all the garnishes!

Related: Try this soup with homemade Mexican Crema on top!

How to make vegetarian tortilla soup

One of our secret ingredients to amp up vegetarian dishes is adobo sauce from a can of chipotle peppers. This ingredient is in several of our recipes in our Pretty Simple Cooking cookbook: for example, our red and green enchiladas, and the chipotle aioli sauce for cauliflower tacos. All you need from the can is a bit of the sauce (not the hot peppers!). Typically, we freeze the remainder of the can for later use. Using only a tablespoon of the adobo sauce gives this tortilla soup big flavor without making it overly spicy.

If you can find it, frozen fire-roasted corn brings big flavor to this vegetarian tortilla soup! And what sends it over the top is the garnishes: homemade tortilla strips, radishes, cilantro, and a squeeze of tangy lime, making for a healthy and easy weeknight dinner. It’s one of our very favorite vegetarian Mexican recipes.

About the book: Pretty Simple Cooking

The recipe is a preview recipe from our cookbook, Pretty Simple Cooking, named one of the best vegetarian cookbooks by Epicurious. It’s a collection of our 100 best recipes that are at the intersection of what we think are the big three: healthy, delicious, and pretty simple to make. In the book, we also share our top 10 lessons for how to cook healthy food in the long-run. Instead of fad diets and cleanses, learn to cook sustainably healthy food at home!

The book has all vegetarian and vegan recipes, with plenty of gluten-free options. There’s also a full-color photo for every one of the 100 recipes: something we made our publisher promise to, since we think the visual aspect of cooking is so important. Read more about the book, including testimonials from real life readers.

Get the book! Pretty Simple Cooking

This recipe is…

This vegetarian tortilla soup is vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, plant-based, and dairy-free.

Get the book!

Looking for more vegetarian recipes?

Outside of this vegetarian tortilla soup recipe, here are a few of our favorite vegetarian soup recipes and other vegetarian dinners that are delicious and healthy:

Related: Try using our Homemade Vegetable Broth for this recipe!