P
Mexican
Sopa azteca / sopa de tortilla (tortilla soup)
Sopa azteca (tortilla soup) is a Mexico City restaurant and home classic — a rich tomato-pasilla broth topped with crispy fried tortilla strips, cubes of panela or requesón cheese, avocado, crema, chipotle, and epazote. The broth is made from blended charred tomato, pasilla negro chile, garlic, and onion fried in oil, then diluted with chicken stock. The garnishes are added at service, never cooked in the broth — the contrast of hot broth and cold/room-temperature garnishes is intentional.
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I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
For the broth
600 g
tomatoes
charred whole under a dry broiler or directly over flame until blackened in patches
Origin · ItalyBosa Foods · Vancouver →
3
pasilla negro chiles
stems and seeds removed; do not substitute ancho or mulato
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
3
garlic cloves
charred with the tomatoes
Your own market
½
white onion
charred with the tomatoes
Your own market
1.2 litres
chicken stock
good, unsalted
Your own market
30 ml
neutral oil
for frying the blended base
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
For the tortilla strips
8
day-old corn tortillas
cut into 5 mm strips
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
500 ml
neutral oil
for deep-frying at 175 °C
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
For the garnish
200 g
panela or requesón cheese
cut into 1 cm cubes
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
2
avocados
ripe; peeled, stoned, and sliced or cubed at service
Your own market
120 ml
crema
Mexican-style; or crème fraîche as a close substitute
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
2
chipotle chiles in adobo
whole or blended into the crema
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
1 sprig
epazote
fresh; leaves picked
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Each tap is counted, so the stockist sees the demand Provenance sends them.
II
The Method
1
Char the tomatoes, garlic, and onion under a dry broiler or directly over a gas flame, turning until the skins are blackened in patches and the flesh is softened. Separately, toast the pasilla negro chiles briefly in a dry pan — 20 to 30 seconds per side — until fragrant and pliable, then soak in just-boiled water for 15 minutes. The chiles are ready when they have turned supple and smell of dark fruit and earth.
2
Drain the soaked chiles. Blend the charred tomatoes, onion, garlic, and drained pasilla negro chiles together until smooth. Pass the blended mixture through a medium-mesh sieve, pressing firmly with a ladle to extract all liquid; discard the solids. The strained base should be a deep, even burgundy-red with no visible fibres.
3
Heat 30 ml of oil in a heavy pot over high heat until shimmering. Pour in the strained base all at once — it will spatter — and fry, stirring constantly, for 4 to 5 minutes. This is where the dish lives or dies: the base must fry hard in the hot oil until it darkens by several shades, thickens perceptibly, and the raw smell fully gives way to a deep, roasted aroma. An insufficiently fried base will taste flat and tinny no matter what follows.
4
Pour in the chicken stock, stir to combine, and bring to a steady simmer. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes over medium heat. Season with salt. The finished broth should coat a spoon lightly and carry a clean, smoky depth; taste and adjust salt before proceeding.
5
Heat 500 ml of neutral oil in a deep, heavy pan to 175 °C. Fry the 5 mm tortilla strips in small batches, turning once, until golden and rigid. Lift out with a slotted spoon and drain on a rack or absorbent paper. The strips are ready when they hold their shape without flexing and are uniformly pale gold; they will continue to crisp as they cool.
6
Warm the serving bowls. Arrange in each bowl a portion of cheese cubes, avocado, a few epazote leaves, a chipotle chile (or a spoonful of crema blended with chipotle), and a handful of crispy tortilla strips. Add the crema. Do not assemble the bowls more than two or three minutes before service — the tortilla strips begin to soften immediately on contact with moisture.
From the canon — Epazote (Dysphania ambrosioides) is one of Mexico's defining culinary herbs — a pungent, aromatic annual with a distinctive smell sometimes described as petr… Epazote — identification and usage →
7
Bring the broth back to a full simmer. At the table or immediately before service, ladle the hot broth over the garnished bowls. The soup is correctly served when steam rises from the bowls and the tortilla strips are still audibly crisp when touched with a spoon.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Home-rendered chicken stock from a whole bird; pasilla negro chiles sourced from a specialist importer with a known harvest date; day-old handmade corn tortillas; fresh requesón from a Mexican dairy.
02
Estate — Good-quality unsalted commercial stock or a careful home batch; pasilla negro chiles from a reputable Latin grocer; corn tortillas from a local tortilleria; panela cheese from a Latin market.
03
Market — Packaged low-sodium chicken stock; pasilla negro chiles from a well-stocked supermarket dried-chile section; commercial corn tortillas left uncovered overnight to dry; firm fresh cheese such as ricotta salata in place of requesón.
04
House — Boxed stock; ancho chile if pasilla negro is unavailable (accept a flavour loss); fresh tortillas fried the same day; feta or mild white cheese; standard crème fraîche for crema.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Sight. Charred tomatoes show blackened, blistered skin with visibly softened flesh beneath.
◇Smell. Fried broth base smells deeply roasted and smoky — no raw tomato or raw chile scent remains.
◇Sight. Strained base is a uniform deep burgundy-red with no fibres or seeds visible.
◇Touch. Fried tortilla strips are rigid and do not flex when lifted — they hold their shape completely.
◇Sound. Tortilla strips produce a faint crack when pressed with a spoon in the bowl at service.
◇Where it lives or dies. The blended base must fry hard in hot oil until it darkens, thickens, and loses all raw smell — an under-fried base produces a flat, tinny broth that no subsequent step can rescue.
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VI
What to Pour
The pairing
Agave spirit
From British Columbia
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The whole pairingPillar VII
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