You know you’re Mexican if you grew up eating Sopa de Conchas.
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After a long day of adding and subtracting, Mexican kids are often greeted by a bowl of this yummy shell pasta soup.
It goes right up there with other classic recipes like Sopa de Fideo and Frijoles de la Olla.
Table of Contents
🐚 Ingredients
- Roma tomatoes
- onion
- garlic
- chicken bouillon
- conchas pasta
- oil
- water
This is a basic recipe for Sopa de Conchas. You can add more ingredients if you like. Some moms add a pinch of cumin and a pinch of oregano. Sometimes potatoes and veggies are added too.
👩🏼🍳 Step-By-Step Instructions
Rough chop the tomatoes before adding them to the blender. These are Roma tomatoes, but cherry tomatoes and beefsteak work just as well.
Add tomatoes to a blender. Look for ripe tomatoes for best flavor.
Also add the onion and garlic to the blender. Some people will dice up the onions and cook them with the shells. Either way works fine.
Add water to the blender. We’re creating a basic tomato sauce.
Blend everything until smooth. Set aside until ready to use. You can totally bypass this and go straight for a can of tomato sauce. That works just as well, but be sure to add water to thin it out.
Heat up the oil in a large stock pot. Don’t skimp on the oil. We are about to “toast” our pasta. To make this soup, use a big pot.
The star of the show is this conchas pasta, or pasta shaped like shells. It is commonly found in the Hispanic aisle at the grocery store. Or, you can purchase it online. If your store carries fideo pasta, it more than likely will sell this pasta.
Once the oil is nice and hot, add the conchas. Get out your spatula and start stirring.
🔥 Be Careful!
You don’t want this to burn. If you end up burning it, you will have to start all over again. That’s not fun. My advice is to stir, stir, stir, and keep stirring.
You gotta be on the lookout for when the pasta starts to toast. That’s the time to add the rest of the ingredients.
Look at these golden beauties. A few of them are really toasted. As long as they aren’t burnt, it’s all good in the hood.
Now add the rest of the water. Some people will use chicken broth, and if you have it, awesome! If you opt use chicken broth, don’t add the chicken bouillon.
Time for the tomato mixture. Pour all of it in. I like to leave one cup of water to get all the tomato sauce out of the blender. However you do this is fine too.
Chicken bouillon is a common ingredient in our Mexican cuisine. Omit, if you like, and use chicken broth or vegetable stock instead. Both work well when making this Sopa de Conchas recipe. Or, use salt and add water.
Lastly, cover up the pot for 20 minutes. Check the pot at around 18 minutes. All you want is to make sure the pasta is soft and fully cooked. The shells will puff out, almost 3 times bigger than their dried version.
If the soup is dry and the liquid has evaporated, add 1 cup of chicken broth 2 minutes before serving.
🍲 More Mexican Soup Recipes
- Sopa de Coditos
- Caldo de Albondigas
- Sopa de Pollo con Fideos
- Menudo recipe
- Sopa de Letras
- Caldo Tlalpeno
Serve your soup in a large bowl. I call this Mexican comfort food. It warms your belly and your soul. Childhood memories swarm with each spoonful and many more to be had. Hope you enjoy!
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Sopa de Conchas
Ingredients
- 2 Roma tomatoes chopped
- ¼ onion
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 cup water + 4 cups water divided
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 16- ounce package of conchas
- 1 chicken bouillon cube
Instructions
- To a blender, add tomatoes, onion, garlic clove and 1 cup of water.
- Blend until smooth.
- Set aside until ready to use.
- Heat oil in a large stock pot.
- Add package of conchas pasta.
- Stir frequently until golden brown.
- About 5 minutes.
- Do not let this burn, or you will have to start all over again.
- Add 4 cups of water, tomato mixture, and chicken bouillon.
- Stir to combine.
- Cover and bring to a low simmer.
- Cook for 20 minutes, or until pasta is soft and the conchas have puffed up.
- Serve and enjoy
Such a delicious, easy, and comforting dish to make for my sick husband. I am sure this dish will help him to feel better from his cold.
Nothing beats a warm and delicious bowl of soup when you’re feeling under the weather. Hope he feels better soon!
Oh my, this Sopa de Conchas soup looks absolutely delicious! A perfect meal for such cold weather we’re experiencing on my end even though Spring is already started!
This Sopa de Conchas is definitely a comforting dish for colder weather. Let me know how it turns out if you give it a try!
This soup sounds delicious! The weather here is still a bit cool, so soup will be perfect to make!
This Sopa de Conchas is definitely a great option for cooler weather. Hope that you enjoy every spoonful.
This is the 2nd recipe I tried and my husband said this was perfect. I don’t have to look any further. Thank you!
Awww! That just made my day. I love hearing that people love this sopa de conchas recipe.
Love the recipe but my conchas soak up too much water and I’m left with huge conchas and little water. Any help to remedy this?
That happens to everyone. My advice is to add the tomato sauce right before serving the sopa de conchas. Once it’s heated up, then serve immediately. Hope this helps.
From age 17-22 I lived with my best friends mother and her 5 children. She was born in Mexico & her family moved to the States when she was 3 years old. She taught me a lot when it came to cooking and because she had a big family, she generally would start cooking something around 1pm so that her hungry kids would have something hot and ready when they came running through the door on school days. This was always one of my favorites that she made every week and she taught me how to make it as well. The only difference with her sopa recipe is that she made it with peeled and cut potatoes as well which I highly recommend! She’d also add a Sazon packet to each pot of sopa. But it was ALWAYS made with conchas (medium size shell pasta) and for some reason it’s a must for me as well or it just doesn’t feel the same with other pasta varieties.
This recipe was spot on and reminded me of the forgotten recipe that I hadn’t made in close to 5 years. Thanks for posting!
I love food memories. Thank you for sharing this story.
THANK YOU! I CAN’T THANK YOU ENOUGH! I had no idea this was a traditional dish! Mi abuelita made this every day after school for us after school. We’d top it with as much cheese as we were allowed. My cousins could always make it, but I’m a wedita, and I never got the recipe. I didn’t know about the toasting part! My father is now in hospice, and my brother took me to a local restaurant and secretly ordered it for me. I was shocked. I rushed home, found your order, and made it with a tres leches cake with peach filling. Thanks again, I simply had no idea.
Awww.. I love food memories! Thank you for sharing. 🙂
I’ve enjoyed reading many of your recipes and learning from them. Sopa de conchas has been one of the simple yet delicious out of the variety.
So simple but so good. 🙂
Since discovering this recipe it has been a staple. It has also allowed me to venture further into Mexican cooking with ease. Thank you Maggie for being a great teacher.
That makes me so happy to hear. Thank you!
I am bookmarking this so I can rewatch the video before making my very own sopas. Excited to try out your recipe!
This soup is easy and delicious. Hope you try it!
Ohh, this looks good. A hearty and comforting soup for the cooler months. Simple and delicious, can’t wait to make it.
Simple is sometimes better. Glad you enjoyed this!
This soup really reminds me of when I was in Italy. it looks so tasty!
Glad you enjoyed this
This looks like an amazing dish. I’m always interested to try out something different. I’ll have to give this a try too.
So yummy! Hope you try it
It’s exactly I need right now. We still have cold weather outside and a soup like this is very welcome!
This soup is everything. Hope you try it!
I am sooo loving this Sopa de Conchas! It looks absolutely delicious and so fun to eat. I am so excited to make this.
It’s easy and delicious! Hope you try it
Never heard of this before but love how easy it is! And you can add so much stuff to it!
Easy and delicious!
So easy to make! I’ll definitely enjoy this with some meatballs.
Hope you try it! It’s delicious
I don’t think I’ve ever had conch before. Now I definitely have to make this and try it.
It’s delicious and easy to make!
This recipe would be perfect for the cold weather we’re having today.
Perfect indeed! Hope you try it
I will definitely try your recipe. I was making gazpacho all summer long, and I would love a cold weather alternative. I didn’t realize that Mexican soup used pasta! Cool
Hope you try it! Perfect alternative for gazpacho
This is so good! I followed your recipe except I made it in my pressure cooker. Cooked it 3mins instead of a low simmer for 20. Was perfect tonight here in Michigan as we get out first snow. 🙂
That’s wonderful I have never thought about making it in a pressure cooker. Thanks for sharing.
We love pasta, so this would be a hit in this house. I’ll have to make it one night for dinner!
So glad you enjoyed this!