This easy summer vegetable sopa azteca combines roasted tomatoes, onion, and chile powder in a kicky red broth loaded with all the tortilla soup fixings. Naturally gluten-free and optionally vegan. Photos and recipe updated August 2017.
The weather in San Francisco has been confusing lately, as though it can’t decide whether it wants to be hot or cold. I went to the Exploratorium the other day to celebrate my friend’s birthday (along with the entire ten-and-under population of Northern California, it seemed) dressed in cuffed jeans and a three-quarter-sleeved shirt. I realized my mistake on my way to catch the bus as an icy gale whipped my hair about, freezing my bare wrists and ankles, mocking the sunny sky as well as my Southern Californian optimism.
This summer vegetable sopa azteca was my savior when I arrived home afterwards, thankful that the only youngster in the house was a four-year-old orange tabby. It’s filled with summery flavors, but all roasted and condensed into a brick-red bowl of love. (The soup, that is.) Jay and I have been enjoying it on chilly evenings for the past couple of weeks, of which there have been many.
Sopa Azteca bears semblance to tortilla soup, but the tortillas are fried into crispy strips and used as a garnish instead of thickening the body of the soup. Picante in Berkeley serves up bowls of the tangy, brick-red broth topped with shredded chicken, avocado, cilantro and queso fresco, and it is pure deliciousness. I modeled my recipe on theirs, trying to tease the same smoky flavors out of the broth, while keeping it vegetarian.
Not only is the soup itself warm and nourishing, it also gives us the chance to heat the oven in order to roast tomatoes and onions, sweet corn and summer squash. (Although if I had a grill and a place to put it other than a dodgy, two-square-foot fire escape, and if there weren’t a freezing gale outside, I would totally use it to cook the vegetables. And this pie.)
I start by roasting tomatoes with onion, garlic and Mexican oregano. Once cooled, I puree and strain them, then simmer the puree with water, ancho chile powder and smoked paprika for a simple broth. I tried using bouillon, but found the flavor to be all wrong; water is the way to go, and plenty flavorful, though a light chicken stock could work, too, if you were so inclined.
Meanwhile, sweet corn, cut off the cob, and sliced summer squash roast in the oven until sweet and slightly caramelized. The vegetables and broth go into bowls, and the soup gets smothered in a mess of toppings: crispy tortilla strips, a good squeeze of lime, fresh cilantro and cherry tomatoes, shredded cabbage, crumbles of queso fresco or grated melting cheese, and chunks of ripe avocado.
Skip the cheese to make this vegan. I’m imagining a wintry version with roasted sweet potatoes, wilted kale or chard, and black beans in the manner of my favorite enchiladas. (Update: this smoky sweet potato lentil soup has all the same flavors in a protein-rich fall/winter version.) Though clearly winter and summer are pretty much the same around here, weather-wise.
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Roasted Summer Vegetable Sopa Azteca {vegan option}
Print Recipe / Pin RecipeIngredients
Broth:
- 1 large yellow onion
- 2 pounds (about 6 - 8 large) ripe tomatoes, quartered
- 4 large garlic cloves, peeled
- 2 tablespoons sunflower oil
- 1/2 teaspoon mexican oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus another 3/4 teaspoon
- 5 cups water, divided use
- 1 1/2 tablespoons (yes, tablespoons) ancho chile powder (or 1 teaspoon each regular chili powder and adobo from canned chipotle chilies, to taste)
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika (a.k.a. pimenton de la vera)
- 3-6 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lime juice (from 2-3 limes)
Roasted corn and zucchini:
- 1 1/2 pounds summer squash, trimmed, in 1/2" pieces
- 3 large ears of sweet corn
- 2 tablespoons sunflower oil, divided
- salt
To finish the soup:
- 4 corn tortillas
- sunflower oil
- 1 large avocado, ripe but firm, halved, pitted, removed from the skin with a spoon, and cut into chunks
- a large handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
- a large handful of cilantro leaves, washed and chopped
- 1 cup crumbled queso fresco or cotija cheese, or grated mild melting cheese such as jack (optional)
- 2 cups finely shredded cabbage (optional)
- a handful finely chopped or slivered red onion (optional)
- lime wedges, for serving
Instructions
Make the broth:
- Peel the onion and cut it in half, then cut each half into eight wedges. Place the onion, tomato quarters and garlic cloves in a 9x13" roasting pan. Drizzle with the oil, sprinkle with the salt and oregano, and toss the vegetables around to coat them evenly. Roast the vegetables until they are collapsing and caramelized around the edges, 45-60 minutes, tossing every 20 minutes to prevent the edges from burning too much (a bit of blackening is ok).
- Cool the onion mixture to warm, then scrape it all into a food processor and blend to a paste. Add 2 cups of the water, blend, then strain into a large saucepan or small soup pot, pressing on the solids to extract as much good stuff as possible, leaving behind the tomato seeds and bits of skin. Discard the solids.
- Add the remaining 3 cups of water to the pot along with the chile powder, smoked paprika, and remaining 3/4 teaspoon of salt. Bring the broth to a simmer, then cover, lower the heat, and simmer gently for 10-20 minutes. Let cool slightly, then stir in the lime juice, starting with the smaller amount and adding more to taste. (I like mine on the tangy side.) The broth can be made a day or two ahead and stored in the fridge; the flavor gets better and better.
Meanwhile, roast the corn and summer squash:
- Place the summer squash chunks in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the oil, and sprinkle with a big pinch of salt. Toss to coat.
- Place the corn on a small, rimmed baking sheet, drizzle with the remaining tablespoon of oil, and sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and toss to coat.
- Roast the squash and corn in the oven until tender and bronzed, about 15 minutes for the corn, and 20-30 minutes for the squash, stirring and flipping the vegetables a few times for even cooking.
Make the tortilla strips:
- Cut the tortillas in half, then cut them crosswise into 1/4" strips. Coat the bottom of a large, heavy skillet with a thin layer of oil and place over a medium flame until the oil shimmers. Add a single layer of tortilla strips and cook, tossing occasionally, until they are crisp and golden, about 5 minutes. Drain the strips on a paper towel or two. Repeat with the remaining strips, adding more oil if necessary.
Serve the soup:
- Divide the roasted corn and squash among 6 large bowls, and add the warm broth. Top each bowl with avocado, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, queso fresco and tortilla strips, and a squeeze of lime juice.
Just the soup for the winter down here. Which is finally appearing after an almost warm fall. I imagine it gets better the next day too! Wonderful recipe!
Thanks, Paula! Yes, the broth totally tastes fuller after a few days in the fridge.
Man, I just want to go get the entire farmer's market and throw it at this soup! All summer squash, all the time. :)
Ha ha, totally! Eileen, your pan bagnat post created a pandemic (hahaha) over here! We've gone through three herb slabs in the last week. I'll be posting our variation soon! Thanks for the completely inspiring post – I love your site.
Darn it I am still a few weeks away from the summer harvest of corn, squash, tomatoes and cilantro. I'll have to save this one.
Darn it, indeed! I can't believe how early everything came in this year in California. I feel lucky and overwhelmed at the same time – too much good stuff to cook. Though I'm so envious and admiring of anyone with a garden. Happy harvesting, when the time comes. :)
Back in April, your flaky goat cheese chive biscuits made an appearance on Pinterest and I've been following your blog ever since. I've yet to make anything you've blogged about, but the moment I saw this recipe for the sopa azteca, I knew what we were having for dinner in the near future! We're soup fanatics in our house and my fellow agreed we needed to go to the store *right now* to go get all the vegetables.
We both enjoyed the end result, though based on our personal preferences, we'd do a couple things differently and will be sure to do it the next time I make it.
One question I had for you is if your finished product was overly sour. I used 6 Tablespoons of fresh squeezed lime juice and found that it was extremely sour. The squash, avocado, queso fresco, corn, and chicken cut down on it slightly, but the undertone of lime was still very apparent. I'm thinking I'll be cutting back on the amount of juice used, but I'm mainly curious if that's what your intention was, or rather, if that's how the sopa azteca is intended to be?
Thanks again for the great recipe!
Hi there! Thank you so much for the feedback. I'm really sorry to hear about the sour soup! The sopa azteca that I've had is tangy, and I did use 6 tablespoons in mine both times I made it, which my sweetie and I found just right.
It shouldn't taste unpleasant, though. I'm guessing that the culprit is limes that vary in sourness. Now that I think about it, the limes I used were fairly yellow, and were quite possibly less tart than the deep green ones one usually finds. I'll amend the recipe up top to add the lime juice more to taste. :)
If you still have broth left, and it can take a little more salt, that will help to cut the tartness, as will a bit more water or light stock.
Again, I'm so sorry! It sucks when you spend hours making a recipe and it isn't to you liking, and this one is particularly labor intensive. Kudos to you for giving it a go, and thank you for being my unwitting recipe tester.
Don't get me wrong, we both really loved it, even with it being sour. The broth on its own was a huge kick in the pants in the flavor department and I knew for sure it would be cut down with the addition of all the other little extras. I didn't fry up any tortilla strips, but did add a tiny handful of salty crushed up taco chips on our second helpings and there was a noticeable difference. I had enough left over to freeze with the squash and corn in the container, so we'll see what happens when we have it next time.
I'll definitely see if either cutting down on the deep green limes (which I used) or finding yellower limes will make that difference the next time I make it from scratch.
Looking forward to trying more of your recipes!
The perfect soup for any day! Bursting with flavors :)
Thanks, Kiran! I wish we hadn't eaten it all up, because today it's drizzling! Practically unheard of here in June. :)
This is so beautiful, I can't get over it! All the wonderful colors and fresh produce – absolutely gorgeous!
Aw! Thanks, Shelly!
Dang, I feel like I've fallen so behind on keeping up with posts over the past few days! (It was my brother's bday over the weekend, then I left for my parents' place on Sunday to housesit for the next week. And I'm currently at their place in upstate NY dealing with a crappy Verizon internet connection that keeps cutting out and is sooo slow when it does work. Definitely not helping!)
Anyway, I was drooling over this when I saw it last week. I love that the onion is pureed with the broth, so you get the flavor, but not the texture! ;) The color is gorgeous, and I the contrast of a warm soup loaded with tons of summery veggies sounds divine! These best-of-both-worlds dishes totally hit the spot during weird weather spells. :)
Happy bday to your bro, but boo, crappy internet! Thanks for the sweet words, Carey! Is your onion hatred a texture thing? You texture people are such an enigma to me. :)
We're having the weirdest weather ever – warm and humid, like on the East Coast. Makes me feel like I'm on vacation!
It's definitely mostly a texture thing. Also kind of a taste thing, but I think that's more linked to the fact that I've disliked them since childhood, and the taste/smell has become a trigger for recoiling in horror. I want to like them so much! I do put them in things where I think they're absolutely necessary, but I chop 'em up REAL small. Baby steps. :P
Ha! Totally. I'm so proud of you for kicking your pickiness! I wish I could get over my food poisoning phobia enough to enjoy things like raw oysters again. :|
Old, but I (massively) adapted this for a more typical chicken soup. I think I just don’t like zucchini, and I needed an easy recipe for a tight budget week. It was awesome! I guess I’m saying the broth is really flavorful and versatile. I’ll probably make some strange version of this again.
I can imagine that this would be delicious with chicken! Thanks so much for trying the recipe and for the sweet note. :)