Sopa de Tortilla
Sopa de tortilla in that good afternoon light. Served with a side of quesdailla.
When I was first starting out writing recipes I dog-eared and highlighted nearly every page in The Recipe Writer’s Handbook by Barbara Gibbs Ostmann and Jane L. Baker. In it, the authors instruct recipe writers to “assume nothing” about the reader or the level of their cooking skill. I’ve been going this route ever since, doing my best to write clear recipes that anticipate any modifications needed and/or different scenarios (e.g. a reader that does not have a gas stove and therefore can’t char tomatoes on an open burner, like I do with this recipe). A successful end result is one part of my goal with writing recipes; the rest of that goal is to write instructions/guidelines that will help the reader have a positive, chill experience throughout, from “Preheat” to “Serve”, if I can be cheeky.
In recipes for baking and all its scientific precision, exact measurements are needed. Savory recipes are a bit different. There are a number of “to taste”s in savory recipes because you really should be tasting your food (sweets, too) at every step of the way to learn how to season — this is how one learns to cook! I understand the lack of exact measurement also strikes fear in some new cooks! This is why the best recipes are guides that lead first to a successful result, and then, over time and with practice — hopefully — to trust in oneself. No matter if writing for savory or sweet, recipe writers should keep in mind the best recipes are the ones the reader someday will no longer need.
Here is a savory recipe for a spicy tomato broth/sopa that you can modify however you want. The base is similar to the chile/tomato sauce in chicken tinga with the addition of both corn tortillas and about a tablespoon of masa flour to really drive home that corn flavor I love. I used squash for its ability to caramelize well, corn because maize is life, beans because beans are also life, and poblano pepper since I wanted to char my vegetables and poblanos char beautifully. If going the vegetarian route it’s best to use vegetables that have a lot of natural sugar to help them caramelize/brown in the pot which = flavor to your broth. Think: carrots, any seasonal squash. Mushrooms would be a really delicious and earthy ingredient in this sopa.
Spicy, charred tomato sopa base right after blending with an immersion blender. If you use a high-powered blender, the base would be much smoother but personally I don’t mind the chunkiness. This is where most of the sopa flavor is developed. Taste often and season as you go.
Once your vegetables are charred, and the sopa base has good flavor, I blend the mixture either with an immersion blender right in the pot, or transfer to a high-powered blender. The sopa base is then brought back to a simmer in the pot before adding something my mom always added to her tortilla soup — a can of enchilada sauce. This part is optional but I really love the slightly smoky, slightly spicy flavor and extra body it brings to the broth. From there, about 8 cups (or two 32-ounce cartons) of vegetable stock is added and allowed to simmer for at least 20 minutes before adding in whatever vegetables you’re using. The technique in this recipe is really similar to Mexican chef Martha Ortiz’s recipe for Sopa de Tortilla via Savuer, although I prefer to char my tomatoes and cook them down before blending. Typically tortilla soup also has fresh epazote, a Mexican tea plant, but I have not been able to find any in Atlanta! Where are you, epazote.
If you want to make this sopa using chicken thighs, you would first brown about a pound of chicken thighs (usually about 4 thighs) skin-side down in a dutch oven pot, then transfer the chicken to a bowl. From there you would cook your onions, garlic, tortillas, etc in the chicken fat, which of course then infuses the rest of the broth with chicken flavor, before adding tomatoes (either fresh or canned), chiles (chipotles in adobo, for example) and your seasonings. The chicken is then nestled into the tomato/chile mixture with a little chicken stock if there isn’t enough liquid in the pot, to braise until the meat is completely cooked through. The chicken is shredded (you can either discard the skin or get it crispy in the oven at a very low temp like 180F for 2-3 hours to use as a garnish for the sopa or snack. If you want the skin to be crispier, after drying out in the oven fry in a pan with the oil at 375F.) and set aside while the broth comes together. Follow steps 9-12 from there.
If you can’t bring yourself to use out of season tomatoes and want to use canned: skip the charring and add the can of tomatoes to the pot after the onions/garlic/tortillas/seasonings have sauteed, then proceed with the rest of the recipe. You really need to taste as you go, as often as possible (with any of these versions, and any time you are cooking, remember). If the acidity or just straight tinned-flavor of the canned tomatoes is still too much after simmering for a little while (at least 20 minutes), add in a small amount of any sweetener (honey, brown sugar, granulated sugar, piloncillo). If you’re finding the broth too spicy, again, any sweetener is your friend.
If you want to make the broth less spicy: Omit one type of pepper. If I had to omit, I’d skip the poblano; I would not skip the chipotle as these little peppers add a really nice smokiness that I personally would miss if it wasn’t there. If you still aren’t convinced just reduce the amount of pepper you use; in this recipe I use 2-3 depending on their size, but you can get away with using 1.
The gist of this sopa is this: get as much flavor into your sopa base as you can before blending it and adding the vegetable stock. Charring your vegetables helps with this; letting your aromatics cook down and lightly caramelize as well, also helps; tasting and seasoning if necessary as you go helps. If using the smoked salt be careful not to then over salt the broth. I would start with ½ teaspoon salt at the beginning when making the sopa base and adjust from there. You will probably need some additional salt as the broth simmers, but not much.
One last thing I want to note: this ingredient list seems long, but you probably have at least some of this stuff in your pantry/spice cabinet already. I know that prices for food have skyrocketed since the pandemic; as with all savory recipes, use as much of what you already have in your home and feel free to make swaps where you want. This sopa will last covered in an airtight container your fridge for up to three days, but probably even four, and freezes nicely. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me (teresatothemax at gmail) or reach me on social media where I can always be found, unfortunately.
Sopa de Tortilla
Yield: easily feeds a family of 4 for up to three days; recipe can be reduced by half if cooking for less people.
Cook time: about an hour and a half
4 roma tomatoes
2 small poblano peppers or 1 large poblano
Vegetable oil
2 large zucchini, sliced into half moons
Salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste
1 yellow onion, roughly diced
Garlic cloves, smashed and left whole
½ tablespoon dried Mexican oregano
Ground cumin, to taste (I use about ½ tablespoon)
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon or one cinnamon stick
Smoked paprika, to taste (I use about 1 teaspoon)
Smoked salt, to taste (I use about ¼ teaspoon)
2 corn tortillas, torn into pieces
2-3 chipotle in adobo peppers, roughly chopped + 2 tablespoons adobo sauce
2 (15 ounce) can of pinto beans, drained; divided
6 ounces cherry tomatoes
1 tablespoon masa flour, optional
1 (10 ounce) enchilada sauce
8 cups or 2 (32 fluid ounce cartons) vegetable stock
Piloncillo (or dark brown sugar), about 1 tablespoon
Splash of red wine vinegar
1 (14 ounce) canned corn, drained
To make tortilla strips:
Cut about 5 corn tortillas into strips. Line a large dinner plate with paper towels and set aside.
In a small saucepan add about ½ cup vegetable oil and heat to 350F over medium-high heat. You can also just drop one strip of tortilla into the oil to test it; if the oil around the tortilla sizzles and the tortilla starts to fry, it’s ready. Add a handful of the tortilla strips to the oil and fry for about 3 minutes. Transfer tortilla strips to the prepared dinner plate and immediately sprinkle with salt. Repeat with remaining tortilla strips.
To make the sopa:
Turn one burner on a gas stove to high. Using tongs carefully place two tomatoes at a time over the flame, turning every couple of minutes or so until tomato skins have charred and blackened, about 5 minutes in total. Repeat with the remaining two tomatoes and place all four in a bowl. (If you do not have a gas stove, roast the tomatoes in a high temp oven: Heat oven to 450F; line a baking sheet with aluminum foil; drizzle olive oil and sprinkle salt on the tomatoes, kept whole; roast tomatoes until skin has blackened in spots, about 35-40 minutes. Set aside in a bowl.)
Repeat this process with the poblano peppers. If you have an eclectic stove, roast poblanos at 450F for 30 minutes or until charred to your liking. Once charred, remove peppers from the flame or your oven if oven-roasting and place in a bowl covered with a lid or just a paper towel.
In a dutch oven set over medium-high heat, drizzle in ½ tablespoon of the vegetable oil. Heat oil until it starts to shimmer. Add zucchini half moons to the pot in a single layer and leave them untouched for about 2 minutes, until one side of the zucchini has browned and caramelized. Flip zucchini half moons now and season with salt and pepper; cook just for an additional minute. Remove zucchini from the pot and set into a small bowl.
At this point you want to remove the skin from the poblanos using the backside of a butter knife, or just peel the skin with your hands. Remove the seeds if you want, otherwise just roughly chop the peppers and set aside.
To the dutch oven add about a tablespoon of vegetable oil. Add the onions, garlic cloves, Mexican oregano, black pepper, about ½ teaspoon salt, ground cumin, smoked paprika, smoked salt, torn tortilla pieces, chopped poblano pepper(s) and stir. Let the onions, garlic, and pepper(s) cook; you can really let the vegetables get pretty brown and caramelized at this stage since you are developing flavor for your sopa base. I usually saute everything at this point for a good 10 minutes, stirring not quite constantly but enough so that I don’t leave the vegetables unattended for very long.
To the dutch oven, add the roughly chopped chipotles, adobo sauce, and 1 can of pinto beans. Stir, and let the chipotles marry with everything else while you dice the tomatoes.
Roughly dice or chop the charred roma tomatoes and add to the dutch oven, along with the cherry tomatoes. Stir everything together and let the tomatoes cook in order to release their juices; this usually happens within 15 minutes on medium-high heat.
Using the back of a wooden spoon or a potato masher, smash any tomato pieces that are still in tact to help squeeze out anymore juice. Taste the sopa base now and adjust seasoning, if/as needed.
Turn the flame on your stove off now and let the sopa base cool a bit, about 10 minutes. Either using an immersion blender or transferring the tomato/pepper mixture to a high-powered blender, blend sopa base until desired consistency. If using an immersion blender, the mixture will be chunky; if using a high-powered blender, you can get the sopa base quite smooth, especially if you then pass it through a fine-mesh sieve.
If you used a high-powered blender, transfer the sopa base back to the dutch oven, and turn the flame to medium-high. Add the masa flour to the pot, if using, and stir with a wooden spoon. Next add the grated piloncillo or brown sugar and red wine vinegar and stir.
Add the can of enchilada sauce and whisk everything together. Whisk in the vegetable stock and turn heat down to medium. Let the broth simmer on medium for at least 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, taste the broth to check for seasoning. You may need to add more salt; if the broth is tasting too spicy for your liking, drizzle in some honey or sprinkle in a little brown sugar at a time, whisk, and let it continue to simmer on medium for an additional 10 minutes. Taste broth again to test for seasoning.
If the broth is seasoned to your liking, add the corn, remaining beans, and previously cooked zucchini (and shredded chicken, if using). Let sopa simmer on low now, for at least 15 minutes.
When ready to serve, ladle sopa into bowls; top with the fried tortilla strips, cilantro leaves, slices of creamy avocado if you are lucky enough to have access to them, crumbled queso fresco (or grated Monterey Jack cheese), and a wedge of lime.