Last Updated on February 18, 2017 by Patricia Carter
Summary: SCD Chicken Tortilla Soup is an EASY and nutritious family favorite that my kidos ask me to make! We have this soup year round, not just on cold Fall and winter nights. It’s a great way to increase your children’s vegetable and bone broth consumption, And if you must have ‘tortilla chips’, try the below substitute! Tip: Grill twice as many chicken breasts as you need for the week and make this soup in bulk. Often I quadruple this recipe and freeze portions. My kidos always take it back to college, and often, I use frozen soups as my “ice” for travel! If you happen to have a lot of leftover chicken or turkey (think Thanksgiving), this recipe makes great use of it! The “hot” seasonings — simply adjust to your family’s preference. Last, I’m sharing for the first time, my real thoughts on our pre-SCD meals (in hindsight) along with where the healing recipes that I post are really rooted. Clue: “There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.” ― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
SCD Chicken Tortilla Soup and healing diet compliance:
This recipe is PALEO, Mediterranean, SCD, GAPS, UMass-IBD-AID compliant. It is not AIP nor WAHLs compliant unless you’ve successfully reintroduced the spices and tomatoes.
A Substitution for Tortilla Chips (often an ingredient in traditional versions of this recipe):
Healing diets do not permit grains (except for Mediterranean) so tortilla chips are not a part of this recipe. No matter though as this soup is so rich in depth, you don’t need the grains. Once your palette changes you don’t even notice the ‘no tortilla’ aspect of this recipe.
If you still want a tortilla substitute, Cheese Crisps can be made using shredded Monterrey Jack, Parmesan, or cheddar cheese. These cheeses are lactose free and therefore legal for SCD, GAPS, PALEO camps, and Mediterranean. Cheese Crisps are easy to make: Shape shredded cheese into circles on unbleached parchment paper. Bake in a 350F oven for 5 to 6 minutes until they are a light golden brown. They will be a little darker at the edges. It happens fast, so watch carefully. It is totally neat that Crisps are moldable while still warm. Drape them over the handle of a wooden spoon to form hard tortilla like shells, or an upturned glass to form a cup, that you can fill with anything you like. It makes a really nice presentation for a party. Totally your call if you want to sub Cheese Crisps for tortillas!
SCD Chicken Tortilla Soup
Notes
Tip: Healing diets do not permit grains (except for Mediterranean) so tortilla chips are not part of this recipe. Many use as substitute, shredded lactose free Monterrey Jack, Parmesan, or cheddar cheese that is baked in the oven and which forms crisps once cooled. See the post to this recipe for How-to instructions or here..
How-To Peel and de-seed tomatoes:
It is recommended for those beginning SCD to peel and de-seed tomatoes. "An easy way to peel the tomatoes for this soup – or for any other recipe where you need peeled tomatoes – is to make a cross cut on the top the tomato. Bring a pot of water to boil, add the tomatoes to the boiling water, remove them from the hot water as soon as you see the skin start to peel off where you made the cut, and put them in cold water. Then you can easily peel the tomato skin off. Riper tomatoes will peel very quickly, while the firmer ones might take up to a minute or two in the boiling water before they start peeling." An added bonus of peeling tomatoes is that you won’t end up with pieces of tomato skin in the soup. Quote is excerpted from Laylita.com. Advanced healing dieters can opt to skip this step.
To de-seed the tomatoes, cut the top off. Stick your fingers into the seed channels and swipe the seeds out. I always do this step.
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp coconut oil
- 1 1/2 cup diced white or yellow onion
- 1 bunch of green onions, finely chopped
- 1 bunch of parsley or cilantro, finely chopped
- 2 slices to 1 small jalapeno, seeds removed diced (to taste)
- 4 garlic cloves, crush then chop
- 1/2 to 1 Tbsp paprika
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp cayenne
- 6 roma tomatoes, peeled (opt), de-seed, and dice (about 2 cups) See Notes section.
- 2 cups chicken or turkey bone broth, or vegetable broth
- 2 cups tomato juice (Campbell's is SCD legal)
- 4 cups diced or shredded cooked chicken or turkey
- 2 tsp to 1/2 cup fresh lime juice (1/2 cup is about 2 large limes)
- sea salt and pepper, to taste
- Garnishes: Grated cheddar or Monterrey Jack cheese, avocado, parsley, green onions, and lime slices.
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a dutch oven or stock pot. Add onions, green onions, parsley, jalapenos, garlic, paprika, oregano, and cayenne pepper. Mix well and cook on low heat for about 10 minutes.
- Add the diced tomatoes and cook for another 10 minutes.
- Add the bone broth, tomato juice, and cooked chicken. Bring to a biol; reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and add the lime juice.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve garnished with grated cheese, avocado, parsley, green onions, and lime slices.
When beginning healing diets, such as SCD or GAPS, it is recommended to peel and de-seed tomatoes.
I no longer peel tomatoes, but I did at the start of SCD. An added bonus of peeling tomatoes is that you won’t end up with pieces of tomato skin in the soup if that concerns you.
An easy way to “peel the tomatoes for this soup – or for any other recipe where you need peeled tomatoes – is to make a cross cut on the top the tomato. Bring a pot of water to boil, add the tomatoes to the boiling water, remove them from the hot water as soon as you see the skin start to peel off where you made the cut, and put them in cold water. Then you can easily peel the tomato skin off. Riper tomatoes will peel very quickly, while the firmer ones might take up to a minute or two in the boiling water before they start peeling.” —Laylita’s Chicken or turkey tortilla soup.
Often I de-seed tomatoes mostly for personal preference. To de-seed the tomatoes, cut the top off. Stick your fingers into the seed channels and swipe the seeds out. I often do this step because I don’t like seeds in most food.
In Hindsight, Archive: Learning the cooking ingredients and techniques of this recipe elevated my SCD recipes to a completely new bar for taste, ease, and nutrition.
This recipe is based on Laylita’s Chicken or turkey tortilla soup. In hindsight, I already did a lot of whole food cooking before beginning SCD, but I used what I now call convenience cheat ingredients. Cheat ingredients are things like canned/packaged products that added in sugar and gut busting additives like emulsifiers and gums (diced tomatoes and ice cream for example), lactose containing cheese, canned beans, pre-made salsas and pre-made meat or vegetable broths (not very healing with crazy additives even if organic) , omission of fats now understood to be healing like coconut oil/butter and though I used EVOO it likely was adulterated, spice blends (from garlic and onion powders to commercial Cajun and taco type seasonings) all of which add illegal clumping ingredients)… Another surprise was how high the starchy carbs were in those pre-SCD meals since many recipes added in pasta or rice for fullness. Once we committed to eating SCD, cooking whole foods literally took on a new delicious, nutrient dense, low toxin meaning!
Most all think they cook whole food, but most all don’t. They’re using cheat ingredients that contain food like substances that harms you gut (like emulsifiers (hello IBD or metabolic syndrome) or vegetable oils (hello Diabetes or metabolic syndrome).
I learned a lot from Laylita in my early days of SCD. I saw that I could SCD modify her recipes in ways that my family and friends would awe over them. Her recipes are really unique in that they are inspired by the traditional Ecuadorian dishes she grew up eating, as well as anything Latin American, spicy New Mexican, Southwestern and Texas styles. Throw in a touch of her husbands delicious French food, add her international friend thoughts, and use real whole food local ingredients of seafood, vegetables and fruits available (she lives in the Pacific Northwest) and you totally get why I turned to her techniques and ingredient combos to raise SCD taste, ease, and nutrition to a completely new bar. For us to eat differently, we had to eat easy delicious food loaded with nutrient density!
My healing diet recipes? They are as varied as landscapes and inspired by direct two week immigrant passengers crossing the Atlantic to the US from Italy, Czechoslovakia, and Germany. My recipes are a unique blend of the traditional Italian dishes my husband grew up eating, which celebrated produce first with protein as a secondary thought, of his Noni, Rafaella, grandfather, Caesar, and mother. Their recipes were so beloved, they graced the bar in their town’s main hotel which they owned in eastern PA. Throw in a touch of my Slovak Buba and mother! My vacations from the city to Buba’s farm included kapusta, halusky and clean wholesome farm life. Think no running water, tending to the chickens, pasturing and milking the cows, playing in the cold spring house, fresh churning butter, fields and fields of grapes and greens, and of course yes, the outhouse and basement coal fired furnace that vented heat through floor vents all the way up to the third floor, or not! Enjoy those innocent times in the gallery below! Included is my Buba and mom baking on the cast iron wood coal stove using — enamel pots and skillets! Last, team up the mix with strong German traditions of my dad’s lineage including anything pickled, deviled, spätzle (an egg noodle), “Käsespätzle” (cheese spätzle casserole & crispy fried onions), “Sauerbraten”, and “Schnitzel”!
In conclusion, synthesizing these roots,
I hope you try SCD Chicken Tortilla Soup and WOW it too!
Best in health through awareness — achieved through healing, delicious, nutrient dense recipes,
