Tortilla Soup

This vegan soup is great, a little heat, big beans, super veggies. Thick and heavy, perfect for a cold winter night's dinner in January in Up North, Wisconsin, or pretty much anywhere I suppose!

Let's build our soup! Start with a 4 quart sauce pan

1 chopped small white onion
1 tsp chopped garlic

Saute these two ingredients until translucent, usually about 3 minutes, add:

8 cups water
6 oz can of V8 or tomato juice  (lowest sodium)
2 cubes of vegetable bouillon
1/2 cup barley
1 cup frozen lima beans
1/2 cup chopped Swiss chard
1/4 cup julienned carrots
1 tsp chopped jalapeno pepper
and any variety of veggies from the refrigerator
1 tortilla chopped small
1/4 tsp black pepper

Simmer for 30 minutes then add:

2 tsp rough chopped cilantro

Simmer another 5 minutes, then serve into bowls. Decorate each bowl (see photo above) with:

chopped green onion
chopped tortilla strips, baked til crispy

Enjoy! Makes plenty for left overs and this is one that gets better as it ages and the flavors blend.

Ingredient Notes: We had difficulty finding vegetable bouillon in our regular grocery stores but just this week found Rapunzel vegan no salt added vegetable bouillon at our local whole foods store, 8 cubes for $3.55. Look closely at salt content some of the other brands were as high as 42% daily recommended allowance per serving, about half a cube, compared to the Rapunzel at only 5%.