There aren’t many soups that offer a delightful crunch contrasted with creamy avocado upon first bite. A medley of Mexican and Southwestern flavors, this play on nachos is like traditional tortilla soup meets black bean chili. This recipe comes to us from Michele of It’s a Dog’s Life.
Serves 6
For the soup:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 cup onion, chopped
- 1/2 cup green pepper, chopped
- 1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
- 1 (4 oz) can diced green chilies
- 1 (14.5) oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
- 1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 (15 oz) can corn, drained
- 2 cups water
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/3 cup packed chopped cilantro
- 1/4 cup sour cream
To top the soup:
- ½ cup grated cheddar cheese
- ½ cup cilantro, chopped
- ½ cup fresh tomato, chopped
- ½ cup avocado, diced
- ½ cup tortilla chips, crushed
Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Sauté onions, jalapeno, green pepper and green chilies in the olive oil for 6-8 minutes or until soft.
Add garlic and cook for another three minutes.
Add drained black beans and corn to sautéed vegetables. Stir to incorporate.
Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, water, cumin and chili powder. Bring to a boil and turn heat down to simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes.
Just before serving stir in sour cream and cilantro. Simmer for another 5 minutes.
Pour into bowls and top with tomato, avocado and crushed chips.







Recent Comments
What a great recipe! Even one of my friends who considers himself a die-hard carnivore really enjoyed this dish. I made one or two changes (cut back a little on the tomato paste, and added all of the “to top the soup” ingredients right into the mix, and doubled the cheese) and found it to be one of my favorite no-meat recipes yet. Plus, if you’re anything like me, you’ll already have just about all of the ingredients in your pantry. Thanks for sharing!
For cooking over high heat, you should choose an oil you can heat to a high temperature without it burning (called a high smoke point.) Peanut, canola oil, grapeseed, sunflower, corn, and coconut oil are all good choices because they are low in saturated fat, have high smoke points and unobtrusive flavors, so they won’t interfere with the flavor of the dish. Standard olive oil is fine to use, because it also has a high smoke point, but extra-virgin olive oil burns at a lower temperature, so try to save it for dipping.
Walnut oil’s delicate flavor is easily made bitter when subjected to high heat, so it’s best to avoid it when stir frying. Sesame oil is also unstable at high temperatures, so it’s best used as flavoring, after the dish has been taken off of the heat.
-Joey Lee
Executive Assistant
Meatless Monday
We attended an “Essential Cooking”workshop and were told that for higher heat cooking (ie. stir frying) we ought to be using sunflower, walnut or coconut oil. That came as a surprise. We had been using only olive oil for many years. Coconut oil is entirely saturated. They also recommended lard. What’s this about? Could you run something on that, please?