I’m sorry Black bean soup, you are not the prettiest, but you may be the tastiest!

Cut up veggies, ready to start the soup!

For the past week, my house has been filled with sickness.   We all have one of those lovely colds, filled with congestion that makes you feel like your head is going to explode… and you kinda wish it just would, already.   I set out to make some soup, I wanted chicken but couldn’t muster the motivation to go buy a bird and roast it.  Lucky for me I had some black beans soaking,  and black bean is a very close second to chicken soup when I am sick.

I apologize for the lackluster images, although super yummy, black bean soup isn’t very exciting to look at.  After I took the bowl pic, I thought about grabbing some avocado and cilantro to dress it up, but I just wanted to eat my soup and veg.

This is a really easy soup!  I do use dry beans and re-hydrate them, but if you prefer you could use 4 (15oz) cans, drained and rinsed.  I prefer to re-hydrate by soaking the beans overnight, but you can also cook the beans to re-hydrate.

Ingredients:

1 pound black beans, re-hydrated (or 4 – 15oz cans black beans)

1 tbsp coconut oil (or oil of your choice)

2 cups carrots, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

1 small red onion, chopped

2 bunches green onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp cumin

1-3 tsp chili powder

1/8 – 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

8 cups stock (veggie or chicken)

juice of 1.5 limes

salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

Add oil to a hot stock pot.  Add carrots, celery, onion and green onion and sweat the veggies.  You don’t want to brown them , just soften them and allow the onions to become translucent.

My mother hates the word “sweat”, I wonder if she prefers to allow her veggies to perspire?

Add the garlic, cumin, chili powder and cayenne turning to coat the veggies.  Allow them to cook and meld for a minute or two.

Spicy, perspiring veggies

Add the black beans and stock, bring to a boil and then simmer covered for about an hour.  If you used canned beans or cooked your beans after an overnight soak, you will only need to simmer for about 10 minutes.

bring it up to a boil, cover and drop it down to a simmer

Add the juice of 1 and 1/2 limes.  To thicken the soup a bit, I use my immersion blender to puree some of the beans and veggies in the soup.  This wil give you a nice creamy soup without adding cream or flour.  If you don’t have an immersion blender you can puree a few cups in your blender – just be careful!!!  The steam likes to build up in the blender and blow off the lid.  If you find you like making soup, I’d buy an immersion blender – they are an awesome tool to have!

Add salt and pepper to your and you are done!  Enjoy your soup naked, if you are super impatient like me or you can garnish with cheese, sour cream, guacamole, avocado, fresh cilantro…..

Naked Black Bean Soup