Spicy Black Bean Soup

The latest addition to our kitchen is a mighty powerful Cuisinart handheld blender. I think it may change my life! It could make me crazy – I can imagine myself trying to puree everything from steak to eggplant parm... but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I have yet to exhaust all the normal recipes that are floating in my head, in cookbooks, and on the internet.

I knew I had always had black beans in my pantry for a reason – healthy, full of protein and a long shelf-life! Plus this soup kicked butt.

This is a what-do-I-have-in-my-crisper-drawer kind of soup, and you really can’t go wrong. I had half a red onion, half a green bell pepper, 10 baby carrots and 2 ribs of celery, all of which I diced pretty small so they would cook quickly. Into my soup pot went 1 tbs butter, and then the onion, followed by all the other veggies and 3 cloves minced garlic. I would add the onions, chop the next veggie, put that in and repeat. After about 15 minutes of sautéing, I added 2 16 oz cans of rinsed black beans and just enough stock to come up to the top of the beans... less is better because you can always add more after pureeing.

After letting that come up to a boil, I turned down the heat and let the soup simmer for 15 minutes with 1 tbs cumin, 1/8 tsp ground chipotle, 1/2 tsp Mexican oregano and S&P to taste. Then the fun began!! This blender is like a mighty boat motor - it demolished the soup in five seconds flat! I chose to blend the entire pot, but if you like yours chunky, you can always remove maybe a cup of veggies, puree the rest and then add the intact veggies back to the pot.

Finished the soup off with a dollop of sour cream, but you could also do crushed tortillas, cilantro, or cheese!