Ever since I saw that Trader Joe's sells vegetable stock, I've been wanting to try to make homemade soup. I've added countless soup recipes to my Pocket in the last couple of months, and when it came time to decide which to make this week, I decided to choose the one that looked the healthiest – aka no heavy cream involved. Special thanks to How Sweet Eats for this amazing tortilla soup recipe!

I was able to easily turn it vegetarian by swapping chicken stock for vegetable stock & losing chicken/turkey as an ingredient. If you have a non-vegetarian boyfriend/roommate/friend, you can still make this recipe! Just complete all the steps & have them add the cooked chicken/turkey into their own bowl before adding the toppings. It will still be delicious!

Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

Prep time: 60 minutes
Servings: 4-6 dinner-sized servings depending how hungry you are

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 yellow onion – diced
4 cloves of garlic – minced
2 teaspoons of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of paprika
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
1 14oz. can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes
4 cups vegetable stock (we used Trader Joe's Organic Vegetable Stock)
4 4-inch corn tortillas
1/2 cup of monterey jack cheese
1/2 cup of sharp cheddar cheese

Toppings
2-3 avocados (we used 1/2 an avocado for each serving)
Radish – thinly sliced
Cilantro
Fresh diced jalapeños (if you dare – the heat of the soup makes them even hotter, especially when ingesting the fumes)

Instructions
Add olive oil, diced onion, minced garlic, cumin, paprika, salt & pepper to a pot over medium-low heat and cook until the onions soften.
Pour in the can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes, vegetable stock, and tortilla pieces.
Turn up the heat if needed to bring to a boil.
Once boiling, turn down the heat to reduce to a simmer and cover pot with a lid.
Simmer for 5 minutes.
Then, pour the pot ingredients into a blender and puree until smooth.
Once smooth, pour the soup back into the pot and keep heating over low heat.
Add the monterey jack and sharp cheddar cheese and mix until melted.
Once heated to your favorite soup temperature, transfer to bowls and top with your favorite toppings!
We used 1/2 a diced avocado and 1 thinly sliced radish per serving, diced jalapeño, fresh chopped cilantro & a bit more cheese.

Enjoy!! If you want to check out Jessica's post for more drool-worthy images (and the original non-vegetarian recipe), click here.

Let us know if you try it... & if you think of any other topping ideas, we're all ears! I think it was even better as reheated leftovers because it was a bit thicker. Highly recommend!!