Square Zero

Vegan Black Bean Soup

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

Black bean soup with cornbreadReaders 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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3 Responses to “Vegan Black Bean Soup”

  1. Renee says:

    Thanks! I am going to do this today. Hope everyone is on the mend very soon.

    Comment posted February 25th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
  2. Karen says:

    Bless you, Eric, for the important work you’re involved in! And what a great recipe to share during Great Lent.

    God bless!

    Comment posted March 4th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
  3. Eric says:

    I made this soup again on Palm Sunday. I found it was a hassle to do the math to double the cornbread recipe, so I am posting it here,

    Vegan Corn Bread

    1/4 C ground flax seed
    3/4 C water
    2 C all-purpose flour
    2 C cornmeal
    1/2 C sugar
    8 tsp. baking powder
    2 tsp. table salt
    2 C soy milk
    1/2 C canola oil

    Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add the ground flax seed, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer the ground flax seed in the water 3 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

    In a bowl whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt until well-combined.

    Add the ground flax seed mixture, soy milk, and canola oil to the flour mixture. Beat just until smooth (do not overbeat).

    Turn into 9″x13″ baking pan greased with canola oil. Bake on the middle rack of a 425 degree oven 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

    Cool about fifteen minutes before cutting into pieces and serving.

    Comment posted March 16th, 2008 at 5:09 pm