Chickenless Tortilla Soup Recipe

Our original Chickenless Tortilla Soup recipe is one of my children’s most often requested meals. You can add some shredded chicken if you must, but the soup is so tasty and filling without it that you should definitely try it meatless at least once.

Also, this recipe makes for a great freezer meal. Just combine all the ingredients (minus water & garnishes) in ziplock bags and store in your freezer.

When you’re ready to heat, pop contents of the bag (still frozen) into your Insta-pot along with 10 cups of hot water and cook at pressure for 25-30 minutes. Or thaw overnight in the refrigerator and warm soup in a crockpot on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 5-6.

Chickenless Tortilla Soup Recipe:

Instructions for making my Chickenless Tortilla Soup:

1. Open cans of Rotel tomatoes and hominy and add to soup pot (or directly to freezer bags — no pre-cooking necessary).

2. Wash and seed jalapeños, then dice them finely. Add to the pot.

3. Mince garlic. Add to pot, along with dried oregeno (unless you’re using fresh, in which case you can wash and chop it and add ¾ of it to the pot, reserving the rest for garnish once soup has finished cooking).

4. Thinly slice squash and zucchini. Add to pot.

5. Dice carrot and onion.

6. Add those veggies to the pot, too.

7. Fill pot with water to cover (about 9-10 cups).

8. Add chicken bouillon. Salt and pepper to taste.

9. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes or so.

10. Take off the stove top before adding lime juice. Serve over fresh tortilla chips and top with a few avocado slices. (Additionally, you may garnish with sour cream, grated cheddar, and fresh cilantro if you have it available and so desire– but the soup is plenty hardy and delicious without it!)

Print Recipe

Chickenless Tortilla Soup

Ingredients

• 1 15.5- oz can hominy the one pictured above is much bigger because I was making so many batches at once
• 1 10 oz- can Rotel tomatoes with green chilies
• 2-3 jalapeño peppers or 1 large poblano pepper, seeded and diced
• 1-2 yellow squash thinly sliced
• 1-2 zucchini thinly sliced
• 2-3 large carrots peeled and sliced
• 1 large yellow onion diced
• 3-5 cloves of garlic minced
• 8 cubes of chicken bouillon
• salt and pepper to taste I use very little salt–less than half a teaspoon — plus about a full teaspoon of pepper
• 1-2 tablespoons of dried cilantro unless you have fresh on hand to use as garnish
• 10 cups of water add just before cooking if soup has been frozen
• juice from 1-2 limes add after cooking
• 1-2 ripe avocados add as garnish after cooking
• grated cheddar cheese optional garnish
• sour cream optional garnish

Instructions

• Open cans of Rotel tomatoes and hominy and add to soup pot (or directly to freezer bags — no pre-cooking necessary).
• Wash and seed jalapeños, then dice them finely. Add to the pot.
• Mince garlic. Add to pot, along with dried oregeno (unless you’re using fresh, in which case you can wash and chop it and add ¾ of it to the pot, reserving the rest for garnish once soup has finished cooking).
• Thinly slice squash and zucchini. Add to pot.
• Dice carrot and onion.
• Add those veggies to the pot, too.
• Fill pot with water to cover (about 9-10 cups).
• Add chicken bouillon. Salt and pepper to taste.
• Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes or so.
• Take off the stove top before adding lime juice. Serve over fresh tortilla chips and top with a few avocado slices.

Notes

Serve soup hot over tortilla chips. I list the cheese and sour cream only because a few of my kids prefer it that way. I don’t add those things to mine because I think the soup is just as tasty — if not better — without them, plus I don’t want the extra calories– which is why I don’t usually eat chips with mine, either. I love all the fresh veggies and the ripe avocado slices and am more than content to eat my soup “plain”.