Black Bean Soup

Happy Monday! It is common knowledge that I am crazy about soup. I am absolutely willing to crack open a can of soup but I really love home made soup. With winter officially taken hold I've upped my soup consumption by approximately 947% give or take - or about once a week. And really, is there anything more comforting than a bowl of soup to start the week? 

You can see why I love soup so much. This was really easy and a crowd pleaser and by crowd I mean the friends we had over that also loved the soup. 

The soup does require a little forethought which as you know I hate in a recipe. Maybe I'm experiencing some personal growth in 2012 that I still made this recipe? Unlikely. I just was very motivated to make this happen. Ideally you soak the one pound of dried black beans over night. Clearly, I forgot to do this but I did remember that you can simmer the beans for an hour before starting the recipe - this step I remembered. 

Once you've done the initial simmer or soak throw in some more water and roughly chopped onion and garlic. 

Boil until the beans are soft. This step took me yet another hour. 

In the meantime, I was chopping veggies I wanted in the final product, more onion,  garlic, carrots, and red pepper. 

Next up, soften these puppies in a saute pan for 10-12 minutes. As you can see I tossed some salt into the mix. Season, season, season. I try to keep the salt to a minimum because it's the right thing to do. 

Now that I've been simmering for most of the morning I'm ready to move on from just cooking the beans, yes! I throw in the veggies, add chicken stock, dumped in a few glugs of red wine for no other reason than I had it on hand and opened but I think white wine would be wonderful in this business as well, and more seasoning specifically some cumin for some smokey-flavored deliciousness. 

To smooth out the soup a little I zipped about 3 cups, give or take, of the beans and the business in the blender. 

Stir and serve.

Viola! 

Obviously it was imperative I dollop some sour cream into the mix.

I can't wait to make this again!

Black Bean Soup
Serves 6-8

Ingredients
1 lb. dried black beans
2 onions, chopped and divided
5 garlic cloves, chopped and divided
3 carrots, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1-2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup wine
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Sour cream, optional

Directions

Prepare the dried beans, soak overnight in water or simmer for one hour submerged in water.

Drain the black beans. Combine beans with water until submerged in a medium sauce pan or dutch oven. Add one chopped onion and two chopped garlic cloves and simmer for one hour.

Dice the remaining onion, garlic, red pepper, and carrot. Saute vegetables over medium - low heat in olive oil in medium saute pan. Add 1/2 of salt. Remove vegetables from heat when translucent, about 10-12 minutes.

After the beans have softened, about an hour, add in the sautéed vegetables, chicken stock, wine, cumin, remaining salt and pepper. Simmer to reduce the liquid for 5 minutes. Place 3 cups of mixture into blender and liquify. If you are lucky enough to own an immersion blender feel free to zip it through the soup pot for a few seconds. I prefer some chunkiness but if that's not your thing blend the whole thing up.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream.

Enjoy!

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