Black Bean Soup
Description
I’m calling this mine – but to be fair I was staring at recipes from ‘Crazy Plates’ by Janet and Greta Podleski and ‘Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef’ by Shauna James Ahern and Daniel Ahern, when I decided how I would try it. Below is what I did, and I’ll be doing it again. Enjoy!
Ingredients
1 onion AND 1 red pepper, finely diced
2 stalks of celery AND 1 large carrot, finely diced
2 – 4 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 + chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
1 can (156 mL) tomato paste
1 t. EACH chili powder AND cumin
1/2 t. EACH salt AND freshly ground pepper
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 cans (540 mL/19 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 L + chicken broth
Toppings – in order of how we like them: sour cream, crispy bacon, cilantro, green onion
Instructions
Heat a bit of oil in a large pot over medium heat and add in the onion, red pepper, celery, carrot, garlic and chipotle pepper and saute for a few minutes until the vegetables have softened. Here’s where I removed the chipotle pepper, but if you like it hot, I’d use more than 1 and I’d leave them in until it’s time to blend.
Add in the tomato paste and cook and stir for a couple more minutes, then add in the chili powder (more if you’d like), cumin, salt and pepper and stir well. Add in the thyme, all of the beans and broth and stir while slowly bring it all to a boil. Allow the soup to simmer for at least 15 minutes – but it can go a lot longer if you’re busy – then remove the thyme sprigs (and chipotle pepper if you haven’t already) and after removing the pot from the heat, carefully use an immersion blender to puree it to your liking. Alternatively you can put in batches through a blender, but I thought the texture with the immersion blender was just about right. Here’s where I then added more broth because it was quite thick – do what works for you – and then bring it back to a simmer before removing it from the heat and serving. We loved ours with a dollop of sour cream and crumbled bacon.
- Category: Beans, Soup
