Creamy, comforting and super easy, this Healthy Black Bean Soup has it all. It makes use of the canned black beans hiding in your pantry, and comes together pretty quickly. It’s gluten, dairy, grain free and vegan, but has a silkiness to it that would make you swear dairy was involved. Top it off with some fresh cilantro, avocado slices and Siete grain free tortilla chips, or spice it up with your favorite hot sauce to give it a little kick.
Healthy Black Bean Soup
Author: The Lean Clean Eating Machine
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 40 minutes
Total time: 50 minutes
Serves: 4-6
Gluten free, dairy free, grain free and vegan.
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil or avocado oil
- 2 medium yellow onions; finely chopped
- 1 celery rib; finely chopped
- 1 large carrot; peeled and chopped into pieces
- 1 large red bell pepper; core and seeds removed and chopped into small pieces
- 6 garlic cloves; smashed and minced
- 4 ½ teaspoons ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes (use less if you want less spice)
- 4 cans (15 ounces each) black beans; rinsed and drained
- 4 cups (32 ounces) low-sodium vegetable broth
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Optional garnishes: diced avocado, extra cilantro, tortilla chips (I used Siete grain free tortilla chips), hot sauce, vegan sour cream, vegan cheese
*Note: adjust ingredients to taste if desired.
Instructions:
- Heat the olive oil in a large dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat. Add in your prepared onions, celery, carrot and red pepper and cook over medium/high heat, stirring occasionally until the vegetable are soft. This should take about about 10 to 15 minutes.
- Stir in the garlic, cumin and red pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, or about 30 seconds.
- Pour in the beans and broth and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Cook, reducing heat as necessary to maintain a simmer, until the veggies and beans are very tender. This should take about 30 minutes.
- Transfer about 4 cups of the soup to a blender (I used my Vitamix), and blend until smooth (never fill your blender past the maximum fill line, and beware the steam that escapes from the top of the blender). You could also use an immersion blender to blend a portion of the soup, just be sure to not blend everything as you will want some chunks for texture.
- Return the pureed soup to the pot, stir in the cilantro, lime juice and salt and pepper, to taste.
- Divide into bowls to serve and garnish with the optional toppings listed above.