Hola friends! Late last night I flew back home from my vacation in Mexico and I couldn’t wait to get into the kitchen today. One of my wonderful readers suggested Sopa de Fideo to me a couple weeks ago and I thought this would be an appropriate time to give it a try (kind of like a final celebration of all the wonderful things I saw and experienced in Mexico).
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What is Sopa de Fideo?
Sopa de Fideo, or Mexican Noodle Soup, is a simple and comforting tomato-based noodle soup. This incredibly easy soup is full of flavor and, of course, inexpensive (hello, budget-friendly). What makes it special is the toasted vermicelli noodles that add a little extra depth of flavor compared to your everyday noodle soup.
Jazz it Up!
There are a million ways to make Sopa de Fideo, so I put my own spin on it with a little cumin, lime juice, and fresh cilantro (because I LOVE lime in soup). If you want to make this soup a little heartier, you can add some shredded chicken, or store-bought rotisserie chicken. If you want to have fun with toppings, try a few chunks of avocado, some crumbled queso fresco, or even a few tortilla chips. I ate mine plain and simple as described below and loved every spoonful!
Try These Traditional Sopa de Fideo Recipes
As with just about everything I post on Budget Bytes, I’ve tweaked this classic recipe to fit my needs and palate. If you want to try the real deal and learn more about this awesome soup, make sure to check out some of these authentic Sopa de Fideo recipes:
- How to Make Sopa de Fideo from Dora’s Table
- Sopa de Fideo from Isabel Eats
- Mexican Sopa de Fideo from Mexico in My Kitchen
Sopa de Fideo
Servings 6 1.5 cups eachIngredients
- 1 medium onion ($0.41)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil ($0.04)
- 8 oz uncooked vermicelli noodles ($0.75)
- 1/2 tsp cumin ($0.05)
- 28 oz can whole peeled tomatoes ($1.39)
- 6 cups chicken broth ($0.79)
- 1 medium jalapeño (optional) ( $0.05)
- 1 medium lime ($0.25)
- 1/4 bunch fresh cilantro (optional) ($0.22)
Instructions
- Dice the onion and mince the garlic so they are ready to go when needed.
- Add the vegetable oil to a large soup pot. Break the vermicelli noodles into one to two inch sections and then add them to the pot. Cook the dry noodles in the oil over medium-low heat while constantly stirring for 3-5 minutes, or until the noodles have turned golden brown and are slightly blistered.
- Add the diced onion, minced garlic, and cumin to the pot with the noodles and continue to cook and stir for a few minutes more, or until the onions have softened.
- Add a little of the juice from the can of tomatoes to the pot to stop the browning of the noodles. Use a blender or immersion blender to purée the canned tomatoes along with their remaining juices. Add the puréed tomatoes to the pot with the noodles, along with the six cups of chicken broth.
- If using a jalapeño pepper, add it to the pot whole (this gives a slight jalapeño flavor without too much heat). Place a lid on the pot, turn the heat up to medium high, and allow it to come to a boil. Let the pot simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the noodles are soft.
- Add lime juice and roughly chopped cilantro leaves to the finished soup just before serving (I used juice from half the lime, but adjust to your liking).
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Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!How to Make Sopa de Fideo – Step by Step Photos
First I diced one onion and minced two cloves of garlic. You can use a white or yellow onion here, whichever you have or prefer. I wanted these to be chopped and ready to go when I needed to add them to the pot. The next step of browning the noodles can go quickly, so you need to be prepared in order to prevent burning the noodles.
Add two tablespoons of vegetable oil to a large soup pot. Break 1/2 lb. (8 oz.) of vermicelli noodles into one to two-inch sections. Add them to the pot and cook while stirring over medium-low heat for a few minutes, or until the noodles are golden brown like this. Aim for about half of the noodles to be browned because they may brown slightly more in the next step.
Once the noodles look brown and a little blistered, add the pre-chopped onions, garlic, and cumin. Continue to cook while stirring for a few minutes more while the onions soften (the cumin will also toast a little in the process). The moisture released from the onions should slow down the browning of the noodles and keep them from going too far.
Next it’s time to purée the canned tomatoes. Why use whole tomatoes if you’re just going to purée them anyway? Rumor has it (that just means I forgot where I heard it) that the better tomatoes are used for “whole” canned tomatoes, while the poorer quality tomatoes are used for diced or crushed tomatoes. I don’t know if that’s true, but we’ll go with it today. Anyway…
Add a little of the juice from one 28-oz. can of whole tomatoes to the soup pot with the noodles to stop them from browning. Then add the rest (tomatoes and juices) to a blender and blend until they are puréed. I left mine just slightly chunky. Add the puréed tomatoes to the pot.
Also add 6 cups of chicken broth. I use Better Than Bouillon soup base to make my broth because it’s less expensive than canned broth and I can mix up any amount that I need. The little jar just sits in my fridge ready for whenever I need broth. (1 tsp chicken base + 1 cup water = 1 cup broth)
Lastly, add one WHOLE jalapeño to the pot. Why whole? It infuses the soup with a little jalapeño flavor without much heat. BUT take that with a grain of salt. Every pepper has its own level of heat, so I can’t guarantee that it won’t be spicy with this method. Just drop the pepper in whole, place a lid on the soup, turn the heat up to medium-high, and let it come to a boil. Let the soup boil for about 15 minutes, or until the pasta is cooked through.
Once the noodles are cooked, it’s time to add the final touches. A squeeze of lime juice and some roughly chopped cilantro. I used about half of the lime and 1/4 bunch of cilantro, but you can use more or less to taste.
Stir them in and serve. The longer the soup sits, the more the noodles will absorb the broth and fill up the pot. In this picture, right after simmering, it’s still pretty brothy. After taking all my photographs it was thick and noodly. YUM.
Amazing, simple, and delicious!
Dive in!
I made this last night and it was so good. I used Better than Boullion veggie broth and added some chicken (I just realized that sounds kind of paradoxical). I’ve made several of your recipes now and they’ve all been excellent. This is my new favorite website – I found it when it was mentioned a while back on the podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour.
But if you go to the Pasta aisle at Wal Mart or Hispanic stores and look for Q&Q brand fideos/vermicelli you can get a 5 oz box of them already broken up for 32¢ and that’s what us Mexicans do. *:) happy
Judith
Nice! Thanks for sharing that tidbit! :)
That’s good to know – thanks.
There’s also some fun pasta in lots f different shapes we Mexicans make into sopa secas (dry soups) that start out the same way but don’t go to soup status. They sub for rice dishes a lot. They come in letras (alphabets), conchas (shells), semilla de melon (melon seeds that look like tear drops to me), engrane (gears or wheels), corbata (bowties), estrellas (stars) and also fideos. Because they are made from soft wheat, they have to be browned first and then liquid is added but not to the soup level. You can add a can of peas and diced carrots plus the liquid. You can flavor it with Knorr caldo de tomate or pollo but that has a lot of salt/sodium in it. Cook just until the pasta is softened and absorbs the liquid and you have a side in place of rice. You can also add frozen chopped broccoli if you want. It lends itself well to whatever veggie you want to add as a side in place of Mexican rice. The packages are 7 oz. and cost 33-34¢ each. The brand is La Moderna. It is fun to play with your food.
Never thought of that! Thank you .
I would suggest the use of wheat vermicelli over rice vermicelli. Or, if you do use rice vermicelli, just note that the cooking time is much shorter (probably around 5-6 minutes). Also, rice vermicelli can be difficult to break into small pieces.
A word of advice: Chinese rice vermicelli is a pain to break into smaller piece. I had to use kitchen scissors and it took longer than expected.
Secondly, if you do use Chinese rice vermicelli, you barely have to simmer it at all. These types of noodles cook very quickly, much faster than wheat noodles.
Here’s a question that’s sorta related to this recipe: when using Better than Bouillon broth in soups, do you make the broth in a separate pot (bring water to boil, stir in BtB) and then pour it into your soup? Or do you make it in the soup (put the water/BtB in the soup pot and just bring it all to a boil and stir)? I always make it separately, but it would be so nice to skip the middle step and not soil another pot.
Most of the time I skip mixing it separately. :) For some things, like rice, that you want to avoid stirring, I’ll mix it separately then add it in. For this soup I just added the water (make sure it’s at least warm to help the BTB dissolve) and the BTB, then stirred it up really good before bringing it to a boil.
Thanks for a great site. This may sound almost political, but I am a registered dietitian and I approve of this site. What I like about the site is that the recipes are healthy and have common ingredients and not too many of them. Plus, it would convince anyone they don’t have to spend a wad of cash to eat well.
About the whole tomatoes, I completely agree with you. I have also found that the generic brands are nicer than the name brand tomatoes. Go figure! No need to spend more money to buy name brands.
I made this soup today. Unfortunately, I could not taste it b/c of my cold. Looking forward to eating it tomorrow when hopefully I’m better. What would leaving in the jalepeno in the soup overnight do?
I left my jalapeno in, but haven’t noticed a major difference in the flavor. :) I also have a degree in nutritional science, but changed gears before completing my dietetic internship. :)
I’m new to the blog after checking out the book. I made this recipe tonight and it is awesome! I left out the onions and used veggie broth. Maybe it’s not the same but it’s still delicious! I think the toasting of the noodles is going to help avoid 2nd day mush.
Oh, this looks great! I would totally see a couple drops of Valentina hot sauce in this! Yum!
Just made this for dinner. Super easy and delicious! I used vegetable broth and it was great. The lime is key!
Made this tonight. Simple and delicious! The hardest part was keeping the dry noodles from flying out of the pot while I was stirring them (and that wasn’t *that* hard). Definitely a keeper.
This looks amazing! I’ve tried and loved so many of your recipes and am looking forward to trying this one. Just wondering, do you have a tip for storing soups with pasta? I love soup but am always so sad when I take leftovers in and they’ve become a mushy mess.
No, unfortunately I don’t have any tips for that. I guess I just don’t mind it so much. :)
I believe that frying the noodles is the trick, you have to make sure the noodle is “dorado” like a golden color (not brown) before you pour the tomato paste, let it cook for a while stirring carefully to not break the noodles, then you add the broth, this will give a deeper flavor.
Hi,
The trick is to cook your noodles apart in some salted boiling water. Then you add some to your bowl of soup each time you eat it (stored separatly)
I have that issue too (though my husband doesn’t mind it). I find that Barilla Plus pastas work really well when using regular noodles (as opposed to vermicelli like in this recipe, but I wanted to mention it anyway). I can’t tell any difference in taste between the Plus and regular pasta. http://www.barilla.com/content/product/plus-spaghetti
I make Beth’s Italian Wonderpot all the time, and the noodles do soften a bit but aren’t mushy the next day.
On rainy days like today, this soup would have came in handy. Thanks for sharing from 3girls1apple.com
I’ve been following your blog for about 2 years or so now. Haven’t really chimed in before, but just want to say how much I love the recipes you share. This one sounds amazing! Just pinned it and plan to give it a whirl this week!
Fab looking. Is it easy to find vermacelli noodles?
Usually. You can really use any type of thin noodle, though. :)
Just convinced my SO to try it out! We didnt get the exact flavors but we added extra peppers and some hot sauce, came out to be so spicy but so enjoyable :D
Can we use a good vegetable bouillon instead of the chicken to make this vegetarian or would that affect the flavour too much?
It would definitely be different, but I think it would still be good. The lime might not mesh as well, though.
Would black beans be a good addition for vegetarians to add some protein to this soup?
Yes, that would work nicely with this.
I made it today as soon as i got home (with vegetable broth), and it tasted great with the lime, in fact, i added the whole lime. The only thing i would change next time, is to make it spicier!!! (:
It may be worth using something like the vegetarian “No Chicken” boullion: https://www.superiortouch.com/retail/products/better-than-bouillon/vegetarian-bases/43/no-chicken-base
This way it still recreates the same flavor, but is vegetarian/vegan friendly!
The Better than Bouillon base also comes in a “no chicken” variety- it’s a vegetarian version with a flavor similar to chicken broth. That’s what I use when a recipe calls for chicken broth.
This soup does look yummy! And good for summer nights when you just want something light for dinner. Or maybe also winter nights when you want something hot. Or maybe anytime.
Thanks for the tip! I didn’t know they made that. :)