Black Bean Soup Recipe

When I was a young man I lived for two-and-a-half years in Central America.  Actually, I was still a boy when I left but the challenges there forced one into manhood, ready or not.  With my companions, I lived in a dozen different places between Guatemala and Costa Rica.  In each place there was a cook who prepared our meals, usually in primitive conditions.   I could tell some stories about those kitchens.

We thought the food something to be endured, not appreciating the culinary traditions of the different regions.  Now I look back upon the food with a sense of marvel for as humble as they were, they ate more wisely than the relatively rich people of the U.S.  Much of their food was natural and local:  corn tortillas, frijoles, and rice with an abundance of local fruit.  The fruit was to die for, especially the pineapples.  And the cooks knew an amazing number of ways to cook bananas. 

We ate a lot of black beans.  Many days we had beans for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  The black bean has a sentimental place in my heart for in those long ago days when this young boy was trying to become a man, it was my primary source of protein, fiber, minerals, antioxidants, and a bunch of other phytonutrients.  There is no better nutrition bargain than a pound of dried beans.

So the traditional black bean soup really must be included in our short list of breakthrough recipes.  I wanted a recipe that was authentic, one you could prepare without opening any cans.  Using natural food is cheaper than buying processed foods.  Take the black beans:  You can buy a pound from the bulk bin for under $2.00 and it will make six cups fully cooked.  If time is short, use  4 cans (15 oz.) of black beans (totaling six cups of beans when drained) for about $6.00.  Same thing for the chicken stock and Jalapeno pepper—you get a healthier, tastier, cheaper result if you cook it yourself.

Skip’s  Black Bean Soup

Ingredients:

1 lb. black beans, rinsed and drained

1 qt. homemade chicken stock

2 C water (if beans aren’t soaked overnight)

1 bay leaf

1 carrot, finely sliced

2 T olive oil

1 Jalapeno pepper, seeds removed and diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

½ bell pepper

½ onion, chopped

2 ribs celery, chopped

½ tsp cumin

½ tsp ground oregano

½ tsp chili powder

½ tsp black pepper

1 tsp salt (or to taste, depending on salt in stock)

1 T vinegar (optional)

1 lime (optional)

Directions:

1. Black beans may be soaked overnight in 6 cups water and then drained, or alternately, begin with dry beans.  If beans weren’t soaked overnight, combine chicken stock, water, black beans, and bay leaf in a saucepan, bring to a boil, then simmer ½ hour. 
2. While beans are simmering, wash and prepare vegetables.  Saute jalapeno pepper in olive oil several minutes; add garlic and cook one minute more. 
3. When step #1 is done, add carrots to simmering pot.  After 30 minutes add sautéed jalapeno pepper and garlic, bell pepper, onion, and celery to pot.  Add seasonings and stir well. 
4. Simmer 1 to 1½ hours more until beans are tender but not mushy.  Stir several times each hour.  (If you want natural rice with the soup, this is a good time to cook the rice.)
5. Remove about half of soup from pot and puree with a blender, and then return to pot. 
6. Adjust seasoning as needed.  Add water if needed for desired consistency.  Black bean soup may be served over rice and garnished with your choice of lime juice, sour cream, avocado, tortilla chips, chopped onions, grated cheese, parsley or cilantro.   Black bean soup is pretty basic; the garnishments make it interesting.  Enjoy.  Serves 6.  Time: about 3 hours.

Please comment:  This recipe can be adapted to a slow cooker, or simplified by using canned black beans, canned chilies, and store-bought chicken broth if you’re running short on time.  Please share your recipe, or favorite uses of black bean soup.

Comments

[christie]

I look forward to your weekly recipes and will be sharing them with my facebook friends.

[LC]

This looks like a great recipe and perfect timing! I just bought a sack of dry black beans. I'll be putting it in my menu this week.

[LizA]

A pressure cooker is one of the best additions to a kitchen a cook could ever ask for.
I use ours to cook beans at least once a week --- more if there are other recipes that call for "time" when I have none. I love black bean soup year round, and look forward to putting on another pot.

[Brittany Daw]

I make a similar and quick recipe using canned black beans, chicken broth, and my homemade salsa. It is so easy and good for me!

[Amanda A.]

This sounds so good. I think I am going to make this on Sunday. I have a question though. Do you leave the bay leaf in or do you take it out at some point?

[skip hellewell]

Hi Amanda Most recipes call for removal of the bay leaf when cooking is complete. Perhaps it gives an off flavor if left in too long, though I have forgotten to remove the leaf before and wasn't aware of a problem. One of the things we do for traditional reasons I guess. Best to you.

Liz A Glad to hear you cook legumes weekly. Please share your rotation of recipes.

Brittany Our daughter questioned this recipe because she has the habit of buying canned beans and broth so would prefer a recipe where you combine these ingredients and cook for 20 minutes to develop the flavors. She doesn't use any form of dry beans. I'm curious how many cooks prefer the naturalness of dry beans (which take longer to prepare) vs. the simplicity of canned beans. Any comments?

[Rachel]

I have just recently switched from canned black beans to cooking them myself from dried and don't know why I didn't do it sooner! I love that I can buy organic dried beans and still beat the price of "conventionally grown" canned beans! It's also better for the environment taking all of those cans out of the equation and much easier to store a large amount of dried beans for food storage.
I do have one question for you Skip and anyone else, do you recommend soaking your beans overnight or not? I have researched online and there seems to be people in both camps. Any info about this would be appreciated as if I'm going to make my own beans I want to do it the more nutritious way.

[Sacha]

I like to cook dry beans in the crock pot. Soaking them makes them more digestible, and I have noticed a difference if I forgot to. I don't like the taste of canned beans as much. The texture is different. The cost of dry beans is about 1/3 of the canned, with no added salt. It's easy to cook a bunch ahead of time and freeze them. I just did that this week, because I'm having a baby any day now...

[Ann]

This post took me back to my home away from home. I lived in Honduras for 16 months when I was in my 20's. Ah, the memories! While I was there I grew to love beans. I use canned if I'm in a hurry, but when I cook dry beans in the crockpot I try to bag some up to freeze for later.

[Leah]

I just put some black beans on to soak. Your recipe for soup sounds so good! There was an article about cooking beans in last week's paper, but I didn't keep it. The author mentioned that cumin and cilantro are used to help people digest beans. A spice (available in most Mexican grocery stores) was also mentioned that helps keep down gas. Does anyone have an idea what the spice is?

Leah

[Jodi]

Loved this recipe. I first tried it as a soup, like you said, and garnished with avocado. That was incredible. Today I made this recipe into homemade refried beans - to do this I used pinto beans instead of black and omitted the to extra cups of liquid after soaking them overnight. Very good that way too. I love the recipe because it is so healthy. Thank you.

I prefer using dry beans, but often grab the cans. Some things that would be helpful to me in making the transition are conversion factors - if a recipe calls for two cans of beans, how mant cups of dried beans do I cook? Is it the same for every bean? Stuff like that.

I'm also on the hunt for more recipes involving legumes. I've tried some lentil soups that I like, some black bean salads, this soup recipe, but I'm just looking to find my favorites. Can split pea soup be made without the ham? We tried tracking our meat servings this week and couldn't keep it under 4 (2 lunches, 2 dinners).

[skip hellewell]

Hi Jodi

We've made the split soup recipe using ham hocks and it was delicious.

I think this works for most beans: 1 lb. of dry beans makes six cups of cooked beans. 1 can of beans drained is a cup and a half. So four cans equals 1 lb. of dry beans soaked.

One busy mom who cares about health told me she always uses canned beans. For me, the dry beans aren't that much added work but canned beans are simpler, and an established habit for some.

I think soaking overnight is not the best answer. Just put rinsed dry beans in hot water when you get up in the morning and let them soak during the day. Then they'll be ready when it's time to cook dinner.

My guesstimate is that a generous serving of the legume soups with meat is only about 1/3 of a serving of meat and you'll have a health ratio of plant protein to animal protein.

[Betsy]

This soup was great! (I used canned beans. I added more cumin and some coriander per our family's personal taste.) Thanks for the recipe, it will become a staple.

[Katrina]

I'm always looking for good new bean recipes and this one is a keeper! Satisfying and savory, it was absolutely delicious. Thanks for sharing.