A Healthy and Delicioso Tortilla Soup for Your 2025 Goals

By Kim Caviness, Familia Kitchen co-founder 

Did you make 2025 resolutions? If one of your goals was to eat healthier in the new year, here’s a delicioso recipe from FamiliaKitchen.com that tastes great and is great for you and your family. Like so many of our abuela-cooking recetas, this Mexican tortilla soup is made with good-for-you ingredients, mucho amor, respect for our heritage, and comes together fast to feed a hungry crowd.

That’ our favorite kind of dish here at FamiliaKitchen.com, a Latino website and food community dedicated to cooking our way home to all 20 Spanish-speaking places we come from in Latin America and the Caribbean. Free to all, Familia Kitchen’s mission is to gather, preserve and celebrate our Latino food heritage at its most authentic and delicioso. Join our community for abuela cooking and family-famous Latino recipes. Let’s cook our way home together.

This tortilla soup was sent in by one of our favorite Mexican-food cooks, Anjie Villalobos. “I love tortilla soup,” she told us when she sent in this favorite family recipe to share with our Familia Kitchen community. So do her daughters and grandkids, which is why this abuela makes the traditional Mexican sopa or caldo a couple times a month, yearround. Loaded with fresh tomatoes and chicken stock, it’s lighter fare. It’s a great starter as a first course when you plan to serve a big meal,” says Anjie. Or serve yourself a big bowl and make it your main dish when you want to keep things light.

Anjie has fun serving this sopa. Because when it comes to Mexican dishes in general and tortilla soup in particular, for this abuela: it’s all about the garnish. “I top it with avocado, cilantro, finely chopped onion, lime.” Try this low-cal filling soup for a delicioso way to stick to your 2025 healthy-eating resolutions.

A Healthy & Delicioso Mexican Tortilla Soup 

Serves 6

Ingredients

• 5 Roma tomatoes, sliced lengthwise

• 3 large cloves garlic

• 1 small onion, chopped in ½ inch chunks

• 1 chile ancho

• 2 tsp salt

• 32 oz chicken broth

• 2 ears sweet white corn (or 2 cups frozen sweet white corn)

• 1⁄2 lime, juiced

• 1⁄2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

• 1⁄2 tsp Mexican oregano

• 2 Tbsp olive oil

• 4 to 5 corn tortillas, cut in thin strips, optional

• 1⁄2 cup vegetable oil, for optional tortilla strips

The Garnishes

• 1⁄2 cup cilantro, finely chopped

• 1⁄2 white onion

• 12 slices avocado

• 1⁄3 cup Mexican crema, optional

• 6 wedges lime

Directions

• Heat olive oil in a pan set to medium high heat.

• Place tomatoes, whole garlic cloves and onions in the hot pan. Grill on medium high heat until tomatoes are slightly blackened, and the garlic and onions are caramelized.

• Scoop out the grilled onions and set aside.

• Take out the tomatoes and garlic and place into a blender. Add the salt and ½ of chicken broth and mix well. Set aside.

• Boil the chile ancho in a small saucepan with water to cover until soft, about 4 to 5 minutes. Drain the chile and rinse with cool water. Remove its stem and seeds and add to the mix in the blender. Puree until smooth.

• In a large pot, place grilled onions and pureed tomato-chile mixture. On medium heat, bring it to a low boil.

• Add chopped cilantro, lime juice, oregano and the other half of the chicken broth. Simmer for 20 minutes.

• Add the fresh or frozen corn to the pan. Simmer for an additional 5 minutes.

• While the soup is simmering, fry tortilla strips in vegetable oil until crispy. Drain on paper towels. Sprinkle tortilla strips with salt.

• To serve, fill your bowls with soup. Top each with tortilla strips and garnish with the following: Finely chopped white onion and cilantro, avocado slices, a generous swirl (about 1 Tbsp) of crema if using, and 1 wedge of lime.

  
  

Find more healthy & delicioso recipes at FamiliaKitchen.com