Winter Quesadilla Soup
Megha Patel
I am one of those people who love me a good soup. When it’s cold in the winter, I literally want to drink warm liquids followed by cheesy quesadillas. You guys have probably noticed that Mexican food is my go-to. It’s because I find it easy to create recipes that don’t remind me about how healthy they are. Because then I automatically hate them. This soup can go either way – I mean on one hand you are literally eating protein and vegetables, but on the other hand you are adding cream cheese and dipping quesadillas into your bowl. You can think of it however you’d like, but this Winter Quesadilla Soup is my version of healthy 🙂
This soup is kind of sort of similar to tortilla soup, but jazzed up a bit. I’ve had tortilla soup numerous times, mainly because my sister makes big batches of it when we have guests over, which leads us into a tortilla soup diet for a week straight. I wanted to add some other flavors in here, and also thicken it up a bit with the cream cheese, to make it more creamy rather than tomato-y.
The quesadillas are obviously a MUST for this recipe. Soup always needs a little something on the side, whether its chips, grilled cheese or a baguette. This one screams quesadillas! It’s the perfect combination because quesadillas taste good with anything and everything. You can even add meat/other vegetables inside if you prefer… but I think it tastes pretty good when it’s minimalistic so the flavors from the soup are all there! If you have children, make quesadilla croutons by simply cutting up the quesadilla pieces into even smaller triangles, so they are bite sized and toss them into the soup!
This Winter Quesadilla Soup will thicken once it cools down, so you can always add some water or desired amount of vegetable stock to it when warming up leftovers. Store it in the fridge for up to 3 days but it is highly unlikely for it to last that long. ALWAYS give it a squeeze of lime after its warmed for a little tanginess 🙂
Hope you enjoy this recipe and stay tuned for more!!
See below for the brands I used for my Winter Quesadilla Soup:
Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese
Winter Quesadilla Soup
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
Veggies
- 1 red bell pepper (diced)
- 1 jalapeno (diced)
- 1 small onion (diced)
- 2 tomatoes (on the vine, diced)
- 6 cloves garlic (minced)
Spices
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tbsp chili powder
Other
- 3 cups vegetable stock
- 10 oz can enchilada sauce
- 15.5 oz can black beans (rinsed and drained)
- 4 oz cream cheese (room temperature)
Quesadilla
- 8 medium tortillas
- 2 cups mexican blend cheese (shredded)
Garnish
- lime (as desired)
- 4 green onions (chopped)
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In a large pot, heat up vegetable oil on medium heat. Add all of the veggies and let them cook for 2-3 minutes, until they are tender.
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Add in all of the spices directly into the pot. Add salt and black pepper to taste. (I used about 1 tsp of black pepper) Mix well.
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Add in the enchilada sauce and the vegetable stock one after another. Let this cook on low for about 15 minutes. Stir every 2 minutes.
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While the soup is cooking, assemble your quesadillas. Warm your pan on medium heat. Add one tortilla and sprinkle cheese on top. When cheese is half way cooked, cover it up with another tortilla on top and flip. This will yield 4 quesadillas, which you can then cut up into 8 small triangles each.
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Add in softened cream cheese to the soup and stir until it is completely dissolved. Let it cook on low heat for another 10 minutes. Then add in the black beans.
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Garnish with fresh green onions on top and a squeeze of lime. Dip quesadillas directly into the soup and enjoy!
**3 cups of vegetable stock will make this soup pretty thick. If you prefer a thinner soup, add another cup of vegetable stock or water. You can also reduce the amount of cream cheese you put in it, as the cream cheese thickens the soup.
**If you are not a vegetarian, feel free to use any sort of stock!
**Try to find unsalted stock so you can control how much salt goes into your food.
