This flavor-packed vegan taco soup is made with a mix of Tex-Mex spices, red lentils, sweet corn, and black beans. It all gets topped off with luscious avocado crema and crispy tortilla strips!
Fair warning: this isn't one of those vegan recipes where you can trick your non-vegan relatives into thinking they're eating meat. This soup is made with a base of red lentils, which taste nothing like meat.
In fact, back when I came up with the idea for a vegan taco soup recipe, I had no idea that regular taco soup was a thing. Now I know that it is, and it's made with taco meat.
While red lentils aren't fooling anyone, they do make a delicious soup. I've used them again and again in making Mediterranean red lentil soup, dal soup, Ethiopian stew, red lentil chili, and I even wrote this guide on how to cook red lentils.
I love my red lentils, and they're perfect in this vegan taco soup, along with a handful of other delicious ingredients like corn, black beans, crispy tortilla strips and a to-die-for avocado crema.
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Ingredients You'll Need
- Olive oil. Just about any high-heat oil can be substituted, such as corn oil, canola oil, or coconut oil.
- Onion.
- Garlic.
- Jalapeño pepper. This is totally optional. Just use it if you'd like your soup to have some heat.
- Spices. We're using ground cumin and ancho chile powder.
- Vegetable broth. I used Better Than Bouillon in seasoned vegetable flavor.
- Split red lentils.
- Canned diced tomatoes.
- Canned black beans. You can substitute another type of bean if you'd like. Kidney beans or pinto beans would work well.
- Frozen corn.
- Lime juice. Use freshly squeezed lime juice to give your soup and crema the best flavor.
- Salt & pepper.
- Corn tortillas.
- Avocado. Make sure it's ripe.
- Non-dairy milk. Any variety that's unflavored and unsweetened will work. Try soy milk, almond milk, or oat milk.
- Fresh cilantro. Try green onions instead if you're a cilantro-hater.
How It's Made
Below is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
- To make the soup, start by sweating diced onion in some olive oil. Cook the onion for a few minutes, until it starts to soften up and become translucent.
- Stir in minced garlic and your spices. You can also add the jalapeño at this point if you're using it. Cook everything briefly. Be careful here: the spices can burn easily. Make sure to stir the mixture continuously to prevent this.
- Stir in your broth and red lentils, raise the heat, and bring the liquid to a boil.
- Lower the heat and let your soup simmer until the lentils are soft, about 15 minutes. You can add some water to the pot if the liquid reduces too much while the soup cooks.
- Stir in your diced tomatoes, black beans, and thawed frozen corn. Let the soup continue simmering for a few minutes more, just to get everything heated up.
- Prepare your tortilla strips while the soup cooks. Slice corn tortillas into thin strips, arrange them on a baking sheet (or two), then brush or spritz them with some oil and sprinkle them with salt.
- Pop the baking sheet in the oven and let the strips bake until they become crispy.
Tip: Free free to substitute crushed tortilla chips if you're in a hurry.
- To make the avocado crema, simply place an avocado into a blender, along with non-dairy milk, cilantro, lime juice and salt. Blend until smooth.
- You can give the mixture a taste-test at this point and make any adjustments you'd like, such as more lime juice or salt.
- Once the soup has finished simmering, take the pot off of the burner and stir in some lime juice, salt, and pepper to taste.
Tip: Add some hot sauce or cayenne pepper if you'd like your soup to be extra spicy!
- Ladle the vegan taco soup into bowls and top each with a dollop of crema, some tortilla strips, fresh cilantro, and any other toppings you'd like.
- Enjoy!
Leftovers & Storage
Store each of the components of this recipe separately. The soup will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 4 days, or in the freezer for 3 months.
The crema can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for about 3 days. Depending on how fresh your avocado was, it may begin to turn brown (it will still be edible if this happens).
The tortilla strips will keep in an airtight container or zippy bag at room temperature for about 4 days.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is!
Just about anything you might put on a taco would be good! Try shredded vegan cheese, cashew queso, pico de gallo, hot peppers, or chopped onion.
More Mexican-Inspired Soups
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📖 Recipe
Vegan Taco Soup
Ingredients
For the Taco Soup
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced (optional)
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ancho chili powder
- 6 cups vegetable broth
- 2 cups dried split red lentils
- 1 (14 ounce or 400 ml) can diced tomatoes
- 1 (14 ounce or 400 ml) can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup frozen corn, thawed
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- Salt and pepper, to taste
For the Tortilla Strips
- 6 corn tortillas
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Salt, to taste
For the Avocado Crema
- 1 ripe avocado, pitted and peeled
- ¾ cup unsweetened non-dairy milk (plus more as needed)
- 3 tablespoons lime juice
- ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
Instructions
Make the Taco Soup
- Coat the bottom of a large pot with the oil and place it over medium heat. Add the onion and cook it for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it becomes soft and translucent.
- Stir in the garlic, jalapeño pepper, cumin and ancho chile powder. Cook the mixture for about 1 minute, until very fragrant, stirring constantly.
- Stir in the broth and lentils. Raise the heat and bring the liquid to boil, then lower the heat and allow the soup to simmer for about 15 minutes, until the lentils are very soft. Prepare the tortilla strips and crema (instructions below) while the soup simmers.
- Stir in the tomatoes, black beans, and corn. Let the soup continue simmering for about 3 minutes, just to heat everything up.
- Remove the pot from heat and stir in the lime juice. Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste.
Make the Tortilla Strips
- While the soup cooks, preheat oven to 400º.
- Slice the tortillas into ¼ to ½ inch wide strips, then brush or spritz both sides of each strip with olive oil.
- Arrange the strips on a baking sheet and sprinkle them with salt.
- Bake the strips until lightly browned and crispy, about 8 minutes. Keep a close eye on them while they bake, because they can burn quickly.
Make the Avocado Crema
- Place all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.
- Taste-test the mixture and make any adjustments to suit your taste.
Serve
- Ladle the soup into bowls and top each with a dollop of crema and a few tortilla strips, as well as any additional toppings you'd like.
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This recipe is very close to an adaptation I made to my regular meat-based chili when my son became vegan. I found that with the red lentils roughly crushed (I use a potato masher) and all the seasonings included, they took on the flavors and mimicked ground meat. My family is still fond of using the smashed lentils in place of ground meat and they actually do think it tastes very similar.
This is delicious and super healthy! I love that it doesn't have any processed meat substitutes. My favorite taco soup. I took a short cut and rather than using a jalapeno, used a can of diced tomatoes with green chilies in it. Kid friendly, too. We will add this to our regular rotation.
Sounds great, love the ingredients, but I am not an experienced chef and could never make it without AMOUNT of ingredient specified. One garlic clove? 3?
It sounds like you're looking at the blog post and not the recipe. Scroll all the way to the bottom or click the "jump to recipe" button to get there and see the amounts. Enjoy!
Wonderful recipe! My husband and I both loved it. Thank you!
Made this tonight.LOVED it! Both my husband and I did. Wasn’t going to make the crema but it looked easy so I did. So GLAD I did! Really took it to the next level. Thanks so much Alissa!
Hello,
Counting calories and protein and I don’t see the serving size. I see it serves six but it would make my life easier if I knew the size. 😁💕
A serving should be about a cup and a half - that will vary just a bit depending on how much the soup reduces when cooking though. I hope that helps! Enjoy!
Is the avocado crema included in the nutritional info?
So quick and delicious! This soup has been a regular in our rotation for years already, and I'm sure it will be for years to come :)
Really good; went back for seconds. I used homemade chicken stock and chopped fresh tomatoes because I had them on hand and they needed to be used. .This was really my stimulus for trying the recipe. That and having fresh jalapenos which I don't buy often, all the ingredients just seemed to fall in place for me to make this soup. I also added corn kernels, once again because I had leftover corn on the cob that needed to be used. It worked well. Finished with a squirt of lime. Perfect!
Loved it!
Wow! This was really good! I only made !/2 recipe because I didn’t know if I’d like it and it’s just for me. I used the whole can of tomatoes and added 1/4 tsp to it. I also used dried onion and garlic so I could toss it all in the Instant Pot without any precooking onions or anything. I set it to 5 minutes! Wow, it was so good with a sprinkle of tortilla chips. I didn’t even bother with lemon or cilantro or anything. I will be making this again!
Yay!! I'm so glad you enjoyed it, and that's awesome to hear it worked in the Instant Pot! Thanks Timaree!
I made this tonight. HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So freaking delicious. I made it as written, only using Rotel tomatoes instead of just plain crushed tomatoes.
Thank you! I'm glad you liked it! Enjoy!
making this now, taste test so far says that it's awesome! i don't love onion and i didn't have any so i used some cooked quinoa just for filler and i'm going to add a can of black beans bc i love them in my taco soup. thank you for this recipe!
I hope you enjoyed it!!
fantastic soup! thank you for sharing!
You're so welcome! Glad you like it!
This was excellent!!! Yum. I used a different chipotle because I couldn't find the one you use. Still yummy!
Yay! Glad to hear it!
Could regular chili powder be used since I have no ancho chili powder? Looks like a wonderful recipe!
I think regular chili powder would work just fine. The flavor would be different but still tasty I think. :)
Great recipe! I made this soup on Saturday. It was totally delicious.
Glad to hear it! Thanks Rachel!!
Thinking of slow cooking this. Any suggestions? Nay sayers? I think it will be pretty easy to do. Thanks for the delicious recipe!
I'm sure the soup is slow cooker friendly! I would just throw everything in and let it go until it seems done, maybe 3-4 hours on high, 5-6 on low. Just give yourself a lot of time and taste test periodically. You could saute the onion, garlic and jalapeno first if you'd like, but probably not necessary. Please let me know how it works out if you try!
I've been wanting to try a taco soup for ages! This has inspired me to get off my butt and make it!
I love lentil soup, what a fun variation to have in my arsenal! Brilliant!
Does it really need to be 100% authentic 100% of the time- as long as it's 100% tasty 100% of the time- and I'm sure we have no fears of that here!!!