April 23, 2022

Vegan Recipe Review: Lentil Tortilla Soup


Since I started eating a vegan diet in January, I've been doing this recipe series to try out new ways of eating (mostly) familiar foods. I've always loved trying new things--even if it doesn't sound good to me at all--because I never know what I may take a liking to!

Each week, I pick a recipe (usually via Pinterest or one that is recommended to me) to prepare--exactly as written--and taste. When my meat-eating family is here and willing, they taste it as well and give me their honest opinions. I've been trying to pick a variety of recipes so that I'm not always making the same dish with a different sauce or something like that.

This week, I wanted to pick something that I really felt like the family would enjoy. I decided on Lentil Tortilla Soup (mainly because the photo from the website looked really good, haha!). My photo doesn't look so great because I didn't put toppings on mine--just try to imagine it loaded with stuff like my nachos last week. This Lentil Tortilla Soup recipe can be found on Eat With Clarity. (I'll link to it again at the end of the post)

This recipe called for "cashew cream", which I was unfamiliar with but I assumed it was similar to what I did with the cashews for the nacho "cheese" last week. And I was right! Cashew cream is just raw cashews and water (with optional things to mix in; I only added a little salt). After soaking the cashews, you blend it until it's perfectly smooth and I was surprised at how thick it was.



You only use a small amount of it, so I have currently have quite a bit leftover in my fridge that I'm not sure what to do with.

Anyway, the ingredients list was pretty long: onion, olive oil, garlic, jalapeño pepper, bell pepper, fire roasted tomatoes, red lentils, black beans, corn, cashew cream, tomato paste, vegetable broth, chili powder, cumin, brown sugar, salt, oregano, and lime juice.

I actually had pretty much everything on hand (I just needed the jalapeño). I did buy some tortilla chips for the family to use on top of their soup (I didn't want to use the calories for them, because I'd use way too many, I'm sure.)


You actually have to use the blender three times in this recipe! Once to make the cashew cream. Then to blend the tomatoes. And finally, to blend some of the soup when it's done cooking. I didn't even bother to wash the blender; I just rinsed it out in between.

So, like I said, it took a while to get everything prepped--chopping veggies, measuring spice, opening cans, blending cashews and tomatoes, etc. I will state right away that this recipe was NOT done in the 30 minutes stated. It took me over 30 minutes just to prep the ingredients! 

After that, though, it was pretty straight forward. You just sauté the veggies, adding one or two things at a time, and then finally, you put the rest of the ingredients in the pot (except for the lime juice) and let it cook.

The house smelled amazing and the kids and Jerry were drawn to the kitchen to check it out. I didn't say I was making "vegan lentil tortilla soup"; I just said I was making tortilla soup. That satisfied them.

Just before serving, you take a cup of the soup and put it in the blender before adding it back to the pot. It makes it a little thicker.

When it was done, I was kind of shocked at how much it made! It says that it serves four, but it would absolutely serve six. The bowl below was about 1/6 of the recipe; I couldn't have fit 1/4 into my bowl. I would say that there were leftovers, but the boys at them all.


The verdict from the family: YUM! They added cheese, sour cream, and tortilla chips to theirs, but they loved it. I had it plain and I loved it just as much. (I imagine if you're not vegan and you don't want to make the cashew cream, you could just use regular heavy cream; but try out the vegan one--you might be surprised!)

We loved this soup and will definitely make it again. I don't think I'd make any changes to it, either. Well, maybe I'd add another can of black beans for more fiber. Still, though, this has 13 grams of fiber in 1/6 of the recipe!

This is absolutely a soup that meat-eaters would enjoy. In fact, when I have people over for dinner (hopefully sometime soon!) this would be a great recipe to make.

Again, this recipe can be found at Eat With Clarity. If you try it, I hope you like it as much as we did!

3 comments:

  1. This sounds delicious. Thanks for sharing. No, I won't try it, but I'll give to "the chef" (Ed) in case he wants to. He loves all food things Mexican.

    ReplyDelete
  2. this sounds so yummy! definitely going to give this a try

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sounds delicious. I love tortilla soup.

    ReplyDelete

I used to publish ALL comments (even the mean ones) but I recently chose not to publish those. I always welcome constructive comments/criticism, but there is no need for unnecessary rudeness/hate. But please--I love reading what you have to say! (This comment form is super finicky, so I apologize if you're unable to comment)

Featured Posts

Blog Archive