Black bean soup

For many years, my go-to black bean soup has always been super simple: saute onions, garlic, and cumin in oil, dump a can of black beans in pot, simmer and consume.

Not any more. Now that I've upgraded my bean cooking technique, I'm upgrading my bean soup recipe as well.

This black bean soup is awesome. It's loaded with vegetables, which brighten the flavor and appearance by a whole lot (not that you can tell from my terrible picture). The reconstituted beans  give it a less homogeneous texture than if it were made from canned beans. And it's so filling. Holy moly, I had a medium-sized bowl full and I was stuffed. Gotta love legumes.



Maybe it's because I want every bean soup to taste like chili, but I added more chili powder to kick the original recipe up a notch. I also added corn, which wasn't in the original recipe but it always goes with black beans in my head.

Black Bean Soup
Adapted from Simply Recipes

Serves 6-8

4 cups cooked black beans, in their cooking liquid*
3 tbs oil
1 onion, diced
1 sweet potato, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 celery stick, diced
1/2 tsp salt (omit if your beans are already fairly salty)
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbs cumin
1.5 tsp chili powder
2 cups chicken stock
1 tbs molasses
1 red bell pepper
1 cup corn, thawed if frozen
lime/lemon juice to taste
sour cream/cheese/cilantro to garnish

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions, carrots, celery, sweet potato, and salt if using. Saute until tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in cumin, chili powder, and garlic. Add beans, chicken stock, bell peppers, corn, and molasses. Turn heat to high to bring soup to a boil, and turn heat down to simmer until everything is completely tender, about 25 minutes. Take out half the soup and blend the rest until smooth. Add the chunky portion back in and add lemon/lime juice and salt to taste. Serve with sour cream/cheese/cilantro.

*If using canned beans, I would add 3 cans. Use the liquid that the beans are in if it's tasty (I recommend Trader Joe's brand, which also doesn't use BPA in their organic canned beans), otherwise rinse, drain, and add additional water/chicken stock.