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This Sopa de Fideo is a comforting Mexican Noodle soup made with fideo pasta, tomato broth, and simple aromatics. Oil-free option.
This Sopa de Fideo recipe is made in just 20 minutes, in one-pot, with only 8 plant-based ingredients. This flavorful Mexican noodle soup recipe is everything you’re looking for in a weeknight savory soup – it’s quick, wholesome, comfort food.
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A Quick & Easy, Budget Friendly Soup!
I’m so excited to share this exclusive recipe from my friend, Toni Okamoto’s newest cookbook, Plant-Based on a Budget Quick & Easy. This Sopa de Fideo, or Sopita as her family called it, is one of the Mexican soups Toni grew up enjoying. Traditionally, her grandmother made her authentic sopa de fideo recipe by blending fresh Roma tomatoes until smooth. Toni has since simplified the recipe to be quicker and require less dishes, yet still be packed with flavor and texture.
Get ready to sit down to a steaming bowlful of this warm, comforting soup!
What You Need for Sopa de Fideo
This 20-minute soup is made start to finish with just 8 simple ingredients and 3 components:
- Aromatics: Toni’s soup recipe keeps it quick and simple and sticks to the essentials – onion and garlic.
- Fideo pasta: In Spanish, fideo translates to “pasta” or “noodle” and is most similar to a thin pasta, such as spaghetti or vermicelli. Fideo can often be found in latin grocery stores or in the international aisle of larger grocery chains.
- Tomato broth: You’ll need a combination of vegetable broth, tomato sauce, and fresh tomatoes to make a flavorful, easy soup broth.
How to Make Sopa de Fideo
- Sauté the diced onion and garlic for 1 minute. Add the zucchini and fideo noodles and cook until the noodles are light brown, a couple of minutes.
- Add the tomatoes, cumin, vegetable broth, and tomato sauce and stir to combine.
- Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer until the noodles have softened, about 10 minutes.
- Serve immediately while warm with desired garnishes.
Caitlin’s Cooking Tips
- Use a flavorful vegetable broth: Since this is a brothy, stock-based soup, the quality of the broth you use is going to make a world of difference. I highly recommend my Easy Homemade Vegetable Broth made using leftover vegetable scraps. It’s not only cheap and easy, but rich and flavorful, too!
- Store your roma tomatoes at room temperature. Whether you’ve purchased roma tomatoes or picked them straight from the garden, always store them at room temperature. Refrigeration can change the texture, causing the tomatoes to become mealy and unpleasant.
Serving Suggestions
This sopita can be served as a warm side dish or comforting main dish. Enjoy as is, or garnished with fresh cilantro, avocado slices, and a squeeze of lime juice.
If you’re looking for more Mexican soup recipes, you’ll also love this Chipotle Black Bean & Sweet Potato Soup and this Instant Pot Black Bean Soup.
How to Store Sopa de Fideo
Leftover soup will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days when stored in an airtight container, preferably glass.
Leftovers can be reheated in a small saucepan on the stovetop or in the microwave until warmed through. If the fideo has absorbed a significant amount of the tomato-based broth, feel free to add additional vegetable stock until the soup is your desired consistency again.
Substitutions and Variations
- Oil-free option: Replace the oil for 1/4 cup of water and water sauté the aromatics instead.
- Add protein: If you want to make this soup heartier, stir in 1 cup of cooked black or pinto beans just before serving. If using canned beans, be sure to thoroughly drain and rinse before adding to the soup.
- Fideo pasta substitution: Replace the fideo pasta with similar types of pasta, such as angel hair pasta or vermicelli noodles that has been broken into 1-inch pieces.
Recipe FAQs
Yes, this Mexican soup can be frozen for up to 3 months in an airtight container such as a mason jar or reusable silicone bag. Allow the soup to cool to room temperature before transferring to your freezer safe container.
If the pasta is clumping together in your soup, it is likely it was not toasted long enough before adding in the additional liquid. In addition to giving the soup a deeper flavor, toasting the fideo helps prevent it from sticking together.
Nope! This sopa de fideo comes together in one pot and is simmered until tender right in the soup broth.
Mushy pasta means your soup was simmered too long. For best results, remove the pasta from the heat after simmering for about 10 minutes, or when the pasta is tender.
Enjoy! If you make this recipe and decide to share it on Facebook or Instagram, don’t forget to tag me @FromMyBowl + #FromMyBowl! I would also love it if you could leave a comment below with a recipe rating! Thank you for the support 😊
20-Minute Sopa de Fideo (Mexican Noodle Soup)
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1/2 medium yellow onion diced
- 3 medium garlic cloves minced
- 1 small zucchini diced
- 1 7-ounce package fideo pasta
- 2 Roma tomatoes diced
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 5-6 cups vegetable broth more for a thinner soup
- 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Aromatics: In a medium saucepan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Sauté the onion and garlic for 1 minute. Add the zucchini and fideo noodles and sauté until the noodles turn very light brown, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Make the Soup: Add the tomatoes, cumin, broth, and tomato sauce and stir until thoroughly combined. Add salt to taste, if necessary.
- Simmer & Serve: Bring to a boil, cover with a lid, reduce the heat to low, and let simmer until the noodles have softened, about 10 minutes.
Recipe Notes
- Oil-Free: replace the oil with ¼ cup of water and proceed with the recipe as written.
- Extra Protein: stir in 1 cup of cooked canned black or pinto beans just before serving.
- If you can’t find fideo pasta at your local grocery store (look for it in the Hispanic foods section), you can use angel hair pasta broken up into 1-inch pieces.
- Reprinted from Plant-Based on a Budget Quick & Easy with permission from Toni Okamoto and BenBella Books. © 2023
Made this on a whim one night because I had some of this pasta at the back of a drawer and it was amazing! Super simple, very tasty and came together super fast! I’ll make it again for sure!
Glad you liked it, Adriana!
Very good and so easy! I did add a bit of tobasco tho cause well, I like it. Def will make this again
Thank you, Patty!
I made this today and it was fantastic! I couldn’t believe how much flavor it had for such a simple recipe! I also added a can of pinto beans like suggested for more protein and to keep me for longer. I made some corn muffins to go with it and it was a perfect meal. I’m adding this to my rotation! Will be making again and again! Thank you!
We’re happy you loved it, Michele!
Where do you find fideo pasta? What brand(s) make it? Or, what can be used as a substitution if I can’t find it? Thanks.
You can typically find it in the Hispanic/Latin section of most grocery stores or in a specialty Latin grocery store. Some popular brands that make fideo pasta include Goya, La Moderna, and El Mexicano.
If you are unable to find fideo pasta, you can use regular thin spaghetti or vermicelli as a substitute. You may need to break the pasta into smaller pieces to resemble the length of fideo pasta. Another option is to use angel hair pasta, which is a bit thinner than fideo pasta but has a similar texture.
I’m making this soup right now and found it by Barilla brand in the regular pasta section at Kroger.