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Sopa de Conchas, or Mexican Shell Pasta Soup, is as classic as Mexican rice and tamales. This easy-to-make soup is comfort food at its best. Ready in minutes and perfect for little picky eaters. Watch the VIDEO or see the step-by-step pictures to recreate this Mexican food favorite.
You know you’re Mexican if you grew up eating Sopa de Conchas. This goes right up there with Sopa de Fideo and Frijoles de la Olla. My mom would make this for us when we got home from school. And now, I make it for my redhead when he comes home from a long day of adding and subtracting, science experiments, and girls.
The ingredients are simple: 2 Roma tomatoes, ¼ onion, garlic, chicken bouillon, conchas pasta, oil, and water. This is a basic recipe for Sopa de Conchas. You can add more ingredients if you like. My mom would add a pinch of cumin and a pinch of oregano. Sometimes potatoes and veggies were added too.
I rough chopped the tomatoes before adding them to the blender.
My handy dandy blender here is a Nutribullet. It’s nothing fancy, but it gets the job done.
Also add the onion and garlic to the blender. Some people will dice up the onions and cook them with the shells. That way, the Sopa de Conchas will have sauteed onions. YUM! Either way works fine.
Add water to the blender.
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, and in a pinch, I’ll confess that I use canned tomato sauce too.
Heat up the oil in a large stock pot. Don’t skimp on the oil. We are about to “toast” our pasta. To make Sopa de Conchas, you will need a pot. We need room to groove.
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. Here’s the thing: 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.
You gotta be on the lookout for when the pasta starts to toast and it’s about to burn. That’s the time to add the rest of the ingredients. This isn’t it! Lol. Do you see how it’s starting to change colors? Look at these golden beauties. A few of them are really toasted. They are almost, almost burnt. That’s totally ok. 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. You can omit, and as I mentioned, use chicken broth instead. Both work well when making the Sopa de Conchas.
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.
Serve your Sopa de Conchas 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!
Don’t forget to watch the Sopa de Conchas Video
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
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
More Mexican Soups & Stews
Birria de Res, or Mexican Beef Stew
Mexican Fish Soup, or Caldo de Pescado
Pozole Rojo
Roasted Poblano Corn Soup
Mexican Lentil Soup, or Sopa de Lentejas
Mexican Star Soup, or Sopa de Estrellitas
Caldo de Verduras, or Mexican Vegetable Soup
Caldo de Pollo, or Mexican Chicken Soup
Caldo de Camarón – Mexican Shrimp Soup
Caldillo Durangueño, a Traditional Beef Stew from Durango, Mexico
That looks so good! I love the simplicity of this recipe and how full of flavor it is. This is a great one!
Totally agree, sometimes the simplest recipes are the most flavorful. It’s all about letting the ingredients shine. Glad you enjoyed it!
So interesting and unique. I love trying dishes that are easy new to me.
Glad to hear that you found the Sopa de Conchas recipe unique. Hope you enjoy making and tasting this delicious soup!
Now I’m getting out the soup pot! MMMM. Love the shells here as well.
Sopa de conchas is a delicious and comforting Mexican soup that’s perfect for colder days. Hope you enjoy this flavorful soup!
My family will go crazy over this pasta soup. So perfect for those cold evenings!
So glad you enjoyed this!
This sopa de conchas looks delicious simple and comfort soup. My kids love shell shaped pasta.
So glad you enjoyed this!
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!
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.
This recipe would be perfect for the cold weather we’re having today.
Perfect indeed! Hope you try it
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!
So easy to make! I’ll definitely enjoy this with some meatballs.
Hope you try it! It’s delicious
Never heard of this before but love how easy it is! And you can add so much stuff to it!
Easy and delicious!
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
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!
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
This soup really reminds me of when I was in Italy. it looks so tasty!
Glad you enjoyed this