Slow Cooked Black Bean Soup
By: Lauren Short
Published: Friday, January 13, 2017 - 11:27am

Ingredients




1.5  cups (340g) Dried Black Beans (or 2 cans)*
1 White Onion
4 Cloves Garlic
1 Jalapeno
1 Green Bell Pepper
1 tsp Ground Cumin
1/2 tsp Chilli Powder
1 14oz (400g) can Diced Tomatoes
2  cups (560ml) Vegetable Stock
1/2 tsp Salt
1 pinch Black Pepper
Juice of 1/2 a Lime
Optional Toppings
Diced Tomatoes
Sliced Avocado
Fresh Coriander
Toasted Tortilla Strips
Lime Wedges
Chilli Flakes

Preparation

1 If using dried black beans, soak overnight, or for at least 8 hours in cold water. Drain and rinse the beans and set aside. 2 Heat a large stock pot with 1 tbsp of olive oil over a medium heat. Dice the onion, green pepper and jalapeño, and mince the garlic. 3 Add the onion to the stockpot first and cook for 2-3 minutes until it begins to soften. Next add the green pepper and cook for another 5 minutes. Finally add the garlic and jalapeño and cook for another 2 minutes. At this point everything should be nice and soft. 4 Add in the cumin and chilli powder, stir everything to combine and cook for a few minutes until the spices are fragrant. 5 Add in the canned tomatoes, vegetable stock, beans, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer on a low heat for 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally. When ready, the beans should be nice and soft, you can test this by removing one bean from the pan and squashing it between your fingers. It should be soft. If you still feel the bean is a bit hard, keep simmering the soup.** 6 Once the beans are cooked through, blend about 2/3 of the soup until smooth, then add back into the rest of the soup and stir, this will leave a bit of texture in the soup. 7 Add your preferred toppings and enjoy!

About

A thick, textured black bean soup that’s slowly simmered to be PACKED full of flavour!
RECIPE NOTES
* If you're using canned black beans, reduce the simmering time to 30 minutes.
** Many things can affect the cooking time of beans, from the age of the beans to the size of them, so you really just need to keep simmering the soup and testing the beans until they are soft.
STORING - Soup can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days, or frozen in portions for up to 3 months. Reheat thoroughly before serving.