This cheap and easy meatless tortilla soup recipe is delicious and great for freezing. Each serving costs about $1.80 and all ingredients can be purchased at Trader Joe’s. Keep reading to watch a my video tutorial for how to make this soup and get the full recipe.

YouTube videos

Here’s my YouTube video for how to make meatless tortilla soup for about $1.80 per serving from Trader Joe’s ingredients:

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What is meatless tortilla soup?

• Tortilla soup is a popular Mexican soup usually made with chicken. Sometimes it is referred to as Taco Soup.
• It gets its name because it is either simmered with tortillas, or garnished with tortillas.
• This version of Meatless Tortilla Soup is made with pinto beans and corn tortillas simmered into the soup.
• The tortillas cooked into the soup give it a creamy, silky texture and flavor.

This meatless soup is a great way to use leftover or dried out corn tortillas. It’s also a great way to get vegetables into your diet! Serve garnished with shredded cabbage, crumbled tortilla chips and minced red onion.

Cheap vegan dump meals

This tortilla soup is vegan and plant based. It requires no chopping and no prep time because the ingredients I chose are already prepared. Simply dump the ingredients into a pot and simmer for 20 minutes. Blend cooked soup if desired.

Trader Joe’s vegan ingredients

Here’s a photo of the vegan Trader Joe’s ingredients I used to make this budget meal:

• View all budget recipes

What is mirepoix?

Trader Joe’s now offers a great new product called “Trader Joe’s Prepared Mirepoix Chopped Vegetable Mix”. This is one of my new favorite ingredients for creating budget vegan dump meals. It’s also great for when you don’t want to or can’t prep and chop a lot of vegetables.

Mirepoix is a French term for the specific combination of equal parts chopped:

• Carrots
• Onion
• Celery

These three ingredients are found in almost all French soups and stocks.  I like to use this mix because it is cheap, but also because these three ingredients, when simmered into a soup, essentially make vegetable stock. This saves money when preparing a budget meal because you don’t have to add vegetable stock. Simply just add water!

Daniel Fast meals

If you’re Daniel Fasting, this soup is great! It’s completely meatless and made with whole food plant based ingredients.

• Quick start guide to Daniel Fasting

Corn tortilla leftovers

Like I mentioned earlier, this recipe is great for using leftover corn tortillas. Just make sure they aren’t moldy. This is great for using up dried tortillas which are no longer desirable to eat as tacos.

Meatless Tortilla Soup Recipe

This vegan soup is delicious and serves a crowd!

• Makes 6-8 servings
• Prep time: 1 minute
• Cook time: 20 minutes
• Rest time: 10 minutes
• Blending: 2 minutes
• Total time: 33 minutes
• Approximate recipe cost: $11.50

Nutrition facts

Here’s nutrition facts for this recipe from Cronometer.com:

View more detailed nutrition facts for this recipe at Cronometer.com.

Equipment

• Large stock pot
• Can opener
• Measuring spoons
• Cooking utensils
• Blender, optional

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil, optional
• 1 container Trader Joe’s Prepared Mirepoix Chopped Vegetable Mix
• 6 corn tortillas
• 3/4 cup salsa, red or green
• 2 cans diced tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon Trader Joe’s Cuban Style Citrusy Garlic Seasoning Blend, optional
• 2 bay leaves, optional
• 6 cups water
• 1 cans pinto beans, drained

Directions:

1. Pour mirepoix vegetables into a large stock pot with olive oil. Saute for 3 minutes on medium heat. Add tomatoes, tortillas, salsa, seasoning, bay leaves and water. Stir. Cook on medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Let soup cool for 10 minutes, then transfer almost all of the soup to a blender with lid and puree for 30 seconds. Return pureed soup to stock pot with remaining soup.
3. Add pinto beans, stir. Return to a simmer before serving.
4. Let cool. Portion into freezer bags and store for about 3 months in freezer.

Serving Suggestions

• Serve with shredded cabbage, minced onions, and crumbled tortilla chips as garnish.
• Reheat on the stove in a pot on medium heat for 5-10 minutes, or until hot.
• Reheat in microwave safe container for 1-2 minutes.

Further reading:

• 10 best kitchen tools for weekly meal prep