(Vegetarian) chicken tortilla soup.

A little slow with the posts this year but that’s only because it’s been an interesting start to the new year. I finally dug into my first recipe of the year this week taking on chicken tortilla soup for the vegetarian crowd. I trolled a few different recipes for inspiration and ultimately decided that what I like about chicken tortilla soup is the number of toppings you get to add on top. Tortilla strips, cheese, salsa, sour cream, avocado, whatever you want. Toppings, much like condiments, hold a special place in my oh so refined palate. I’m big on dips, too (in fact, I think this inspired me to host a dip party).

Ingredients:

• 2-15 ounce cans of black beans, drained
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cups of vegetable broth
• 3 tablespoons of tomato paste
• 1 can Rotel tomatoes and chiles
• 1 can diced chiles
• 1 bag of Morningstar Farms Meal Starters chicken strips, cooked and shredded
• 1 avocado, cubed
• 4 ounces pepper jack cheese, cubed
• tortilla strips
• salsa (optional)
• sour cream (optional)

Steps:

1. In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat before adding in the peppers, onion and garlic. Stir the mixture together and let it cook for 5-10 minutes or until the veggies start to cook down (lower the heat if need be).
2. Add in vegetable broth, tomato paste, tomatoes, chiles and black beans. Bring the soup to a boil and then lower to a simmer for about 45 minutes.
3. Add in the shredded “chicken” strips and let it cook again for about 15 minutes.
4. Serve hot with avocado chunks, cheese, tortilla strips, salsa and sour cream as toppings.

Makes 6-8 serves. Will keep in fridge for 3 or 4 days.