Vegan Black Bean Soup

Posted by Eric (February 25, 2008 at 11:30 am)

Readers will get the idea this is some kind of cooking blog. I’ve just been too busy to give any time to the blog, and whatever spare time I have left after the kids go to bed has been devoted to reading about the Civil War—about which perhaps I will post a blog entry some time soon.

But I find that the blog is a convenient place to take notes on a recipe; I want to keep track of recipes anyway, so why not just post them here?

I cooked up this black bean soup yesterday to give my ailing wife (wicked flu) a break. She and the kids loved it, including a couple of them who had declared their hatred for black bean soup an many occasions.

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 3 medium yellow onions
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 humongous carrot
• 5 cloves garlic
• 2 T chili powder
• 1 t ground cumin
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/4 + 1/2 t sea salt
• 4 cans (15 oz.) black beans
• 1 can (15 oz.) sweet corn
• 20 oz crushed tomatoes
• 3-4 cups vegetable broth

Pour olive oil into a large saucepan or pot over medium heat. Chop up onion and add to saucepan with 1/4 t sea salt. Chop up peppers and add to saucepan. Pare the humongous carrot and then grate; add to saucepan. Press the cloves of garlic into saucepan.

Cook all these vegetables until the onions are clarified and all are soft. Then add some of the seasonings (you’ll add more later to the whole soup, to taste).

Drain and rinse two cans of black beans and place in a blender with 1 cup vegetable broth. Puree and add to saucepan. Add crushed tomatoes too (note: I used an opened 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes; I approximate that 20 oz were left).

Drain and rinse remainings two cans of black beans and can of sweet corn. Add to saucepan. Add remaining vegetable broth (for thick soup, use only 2; for regular soup use 3).

Add the bay leaves and remaining salt and spices. (A note on spices: It’s silly to tell people how to spice their food; tastes vary too much. Moreover, I rarely measure spices like these. So what I’m giving here are just guesses at what I might have put in this soup. In other words: Season to taste.)

The soup turned out great, served with surprisingly delicious vegan cornbread, courtesy of Kosher Blog.

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