Black Bean Soup

This soup is really easy and quick to make. Also, it is perfect when your fridge is empty and there is no trip to a market in sight.

I should preface this recipe for "quick" black bean soup by saying that while making the soup is fast, cleaning up after yourself may not be. The recipe requires using a food processor, which I find to be very convenient...until you have to wash it. One reason that my food processor/blender remained in a box in my bathroom, gathering dust, for at least six months. Now, a dish washer would certainly speed up the time spent cleaning up but those things are only for those of us who live in a world with large kitchens and modern appliances, something that I will continue to lack for the foreseeable future.

This soup tastes great when you add a spoon of sour cream or plain yogurt, some tortilla strips, and eat it with some bread and guacamole on the side (I actually think that I could find any excuse to eat guacamole, that is how this soup came about...from trying to think up of something that would serve as a compliment to the guacamole that I needed an excuse to make).

Also: I have made this soup several time and sometimes it just doesn't taste as good as it should.  The trick to making a good soup is to chop the onions and saute them so they get sweeter.  If you first run the onions through the food processor and then cook them in olive oil, they stay bitter and give the soup a bitter taste. 

Black Bean Soup
makes 4 portions

Ingredients
2 15-oz cans of black beans
1 cup of vegetable broth
1 small onion, cut into small pieces
1 clove of garlic, cut into small pieces
1 jalapeno pepper, cut into small pieces
Tabasco sauce (optional)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper to taste
chopped cilantro for garnishing (optional)

1. Start by cuting the onion, garlic, and jalapeno. I did not cut the pieces too small because they will go through a food processor later.

2. In a small pot, heat olive oil on low heat and cook the onion, garlic, and jalapeno until the onion gets soft, for about 5 minutes. Add a few dashes tabasco sauce if you like spice.

3. Remove everything from the pot and pour into the food processor. Chop for several minutes until the pieces become small. Return it to the pot and add the vegetable broth.

4. Pour the black beans and the liquid into the food processor and chop until the beans break into pieces. They do not need much time, you want to be able to tell that there are small chunks of beans left.

5. Pour the beans into the pot and add the spices. Cook for several minutes until the soup heats up but does not start to boil.

Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

~R