Tortilla Soup is one of my favorites at Mexican restaurants.  My rendition here is delicious beyond words so I hope you’ll try this one!

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My very first exposure to Tortilla soup was at a little place in San Antonio called El Mirador (Spanish for ‘mirror’). My Dad and Mom kept bringing up how fantastic this soup was and we finally went there on one of my visits to try it.   What a flavor delight!  It was every bit as good as my parents had advertised!  Let me tell you, I’ve had it many places since and none shine a light to El Mirador’s rendering of it.  🙂  I know the restaurant is still there and assume they are still offering this wonderful soup, but it looks like at their website linked above, they have changed the name of the soup to Chicken Cilantro Soup.  I’m sure it’s the same soup though.  You San Antonio dwellers who were unaware of this culinary treat need to get on over to El Mirado and try it if you haven’t yet!  The rest of you might want to try my version of it.  

I’ve tried to recreate that wonderful soup ever since I tasted it!  I’ve gotten pretty close, but it’s still not quite as good as theirs.  Not a true “mirror” version, in other words.  This low-carb rendition, without the little strips of crisp tortillas strips (very high in carbs) typically atop tortilla soup, will blow your socks off!  If the base soup is good enough, you really don’t need the tortilla strips for this to be delicious.  This recipe is Atkins Induction friendly and also suitable for Keto and Primal lifestyles.  Paleo followers will want to omit the cream or sub in coconut milk (which will greatly change the final flavor).

INGREDIENTS:

13 oz. cooked chicken meat (canned with juice is just fine in this)

1 qt. water + 2 c. homemade, low-salt chicken broth

1  oz. tomato paste

1 c. yellow squash, diced (about ½ med-large squash)

2 oz. yellow onion

2 oz. green bell pepper

1 oz. poblano pepper, seeded and chopped

1/2 tsp. chili powder

dash chipotle chile powder (or 1 small chipotle in adobo, rinsed, seeded and mashed)

1 small Guajillo chile, seeded and chopped (these are very mild and found in most stores’ produce dept. dried, sold in a bag)

Dash cumin

1/4 c. heavy cream

VARIATION:   Bake thin strips of 1 cut-up corn tortilla until crisp and top each serving with a few.  Be sure to recalculate your numbers if you make this carb-y change.

DIRECTIONS:  Cut chicken meat up into small pieces.  If using canned meat, just break up the large chunks.  Put all ingredients but the cream into soup pot.  Bring to a boil and then lower heat and simmer until squash and all veggies are tender but not falling apart (about 15-20 minutes).  Turn heat to lowest setting. Now add cream and stir.  If you like, you can puree this soup with a stick blender or in small batches in your food processor.  I’ve done the soup both ways and prefer it chunky, as El Mirador served theirs.  

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION:  Serves 4, each serving contains:

283 calories, 15.1 g.  fat, 6.95 g.  carbs, 1.6 g.  fiber, 5.35 NET CARBS, 26.3 g.  protein, 780 mg sodium