Tortilla Soup

Tortilla soup has always been one of my stand-by recipes that is easy and tasty and uses simple ingredients that I usually have on hand. I like to make it in the crock pot, but our new blender came with a recipe for tortilla soup that I finally tried today. It is close to my recipe but the way it blended up was far superior to anything that ever came out of my crock pot.

Blender Tortilla Soup

1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can chicken broth
1/4 cup shredded cheese (I used sharp cheddar)
1/2 small jalapeno pepper
1 green onion
1/2 medium carrot
2 T taco seasoning
1/4 tsp garlic powder
couple sprigs cilantro
couple dashes pepper
handful of crushed tortilla chips

Combine all ingredients in blender and puree to desired consistency. Warm then serve.

Our Blendtec blender has a "soup" button that completely pulverizes all of these ingredients beyond recognition. I set aside part of the tomatoes then after everything is blended I add those and the chips and pulse it a few times so there is some texture to the soup. I also added some cooked chicken, which is optional along with other additions such as black beans or corn.

For serving, I warmed it up in the microwave then topped it with a little more cheese, some sour cream, chopped avocado and more cilantro.

It was so delicious and I love that there's carrot snuck in there, you can't taste that at all! I'm quite sure this could be made in any blender or food processor just by pureeing then warming up the same way.