This black bean soup falls under the category of “stupid easy”. And even better than that, it is extremely nutritious and extremely delicious. Do you eat a lot of black beans? It is probably the number one canned food in our pantry behind low sodium chicken broth. You will need that, too.
Here it is folks: black beans, chicken broth, cumin, onion, garlic, olive oil, sour cream, lime juice.
That is your shopping list. I know, that’s it. I know, it made me smile too. I actually had all of this in my pantry, believe it or not.
This task is made extremely extra stupid easy if you have an immersion blender.
Chop about a half of a medium onion, and 4 cloves of garlic. Open, drain and rinse two regular size cans or one big can of black beans. Set aside about ¾ cup of the beans for later use.
In a medium saucepan, saute the onion and garlic in a little bit of olive oil until it is softened. Remove the onions and garlic to a small bowl and set it aside for the time being.
In the same saucepan add one can of chicken broth and the black beans (but not the reserved beans). Bring them to a boil. Add a half of a tablespoon of ground cumin. Stir to combine. Add the onions and garlic back in to the saucepan. Remove the saucepan from the heat. Carefully, (as in, do not tilt the blender and spray hot soup all over yourself and the kitchen) use your stick blender to blend the soup to a smooth consistency. If you don’t have a stick blender, you can ladle the soup into a regular blender in several batches. Return the soup to the saucepan. Add in the reserved beans and heat the soup again. Done. Add some salt if you think you need some.
Now the fun part. In a re-sealable plastic sandwich bag, add a ½ cup of sour cream and about a tablespoon of lime juice. Seal the bag and squish the contents until they are well combined. Snip off a tiny triangle of the corner of the plastic bag so that you can use it like a pastry bag. Now you can serve the soup into bowls and decorate the bowls with flourishes of lime sour cream.
As I ate this, I was thinking about what a wonderful appetizer or side soup it would make. You could easily have 8 or so small soup servings with this recipe. We had it as an entrée and it made 2 big bowls of soup and one kid size bowl. My husband thought it needed a little more kick. Since I was trying to get my daughter to eat it, which she happily did, I left out the kick. But you could certainly play around with some cayenne or some chopped fresh jalapeno, too.
Enjoy!
I cannot wait till cold weather in the fall to try the Black Bean soup, it sounds so good I may try it in the cooler days of summer.
I made today for lunch. Fabulous and my lunch guest loved it too! I added a bit of a chili and lime seasoning I had in the pantry to give it a bit of a kick too. Loved it. Thanks for the easy recipe.
I have an even EASLIER recipe for Black bean soup. Watch or your’ll miss it!
*Two cans black beans
*1-2 cans chicken broth (depending on how soupy you want it)
*Picante sauce (I use about half a jar)
*cilantro to taste.
Combine and heat. Serve with sour cream and crackers or whatever makes you happy!
That sounds like my favorite black beans and rice recipe…don’t blink…drain a can of black beans and heat with one can of RoTel. Serve on rice. Ta-dahhhhhh!!! I’m a huge fan of the “EASIER” versions. Thanks, Elizabeth.
This sounds great Kelly! Speaking of easy, also try browning some ground turkey and your favorite seasoning and add to a can(s) of Minestrone for an “Italian” type chili. Easy!!!!!!!!!
Also, Kelly I see you using an Immersion blender. Do you use it much? What brand?
Funny you should ask, Linda. I was, not 5 minutes ago, cussing at my immersion blender. It is a Breville. I am not a fan. It was rather expensive but does not merit the pay-up. It’s most irritating quality, which they all might have at this point (thanks to us lawyers no doubt) is a safety mechanism whereby you must hold down two buttons simultaneously for it to operate. It is hard to do. I usually misfire 3 times before I get it to go and then my hands get weak and lose the magic grip and it stops. I need to go see which one Cook’s Illustrated is recommending these days, because sadly, I cannot recommend mine.
I have an immersion blender and they can be useful, but I have made this receipe with one can of non-fat refried black beans (already mashed!)and skipped the blender. It was wonderful. Adjust the hotness to your personal taste – we added a fresh jalapeno and fresh chopped tomatos. This is a also a great Weight Watchers food. Enjoy!
My mom was nice enough to give me an immersion blender for Christmas. For some reason I set the box on a shelf and have not used it. When I walked past it earlier today I remembered you had a post about immersion blenders and something easy. What a cool kitchen gadget! Mine is a Cuisinart. It was very easy to use. I luckily already had all of the ingredients for the soup except for the sour cream. It was still delicious without it. I just squeezed the lime juice right into the soup. I also liked your idea of adding a little kick and included some cayenne. Even though Caroline thinks she is not a big soup eater, all I had to say is that Lily likes the soup and she was in. After she finished her bowl she said, “Man, Kelly has a lot of good recipes.”
Tried adding a sweet potato today…it was lovely.