Taste & Create XXV: Black Bean Soup

Once again, it's time for Taste & Create! It seems odd not to be hosting the event this month, after helping Nicole out for so many months in a row while she had her sweet new little boy. Congratulations, Nicole!

Taste & Create was started by Nicole of For the Love of Food, and it's a fun event in which participants are paired off and asked to create a recipe from their partner's blog. And, it seems like Liza of Knick Nosh and I are destined to be new best blog friends or something, because once again, she's my partner! (Hi, Liza!)

In August, I made Liza's delicious Spicy Oven-Roasted Potatoes, and in July I made her fabulous Greek Salad. I also tried her yummy Chicken Burgers with Portobello Mushrooms, Spinach and Sundried Tomato Mayo. She has some great recipes!

Still tempted by those Banana Oat Muffins of hers, and now her new Mini Soft Pretzels, I decided that I wanted to make something for dinner instead. Even though it's quite obvious that I am Hungry Right Now!

I considered at her Red Lentil Soup, but honestly I don't think my grocery store carries red lentils, and although I'm sure any kind of lentils would work, I just really didn't feel like doing it. I'm tired.

So I decided on her Black Bean Soup, because I love black beans, it sounded simple and delicious, AND I have almost everything in the pantry to make it. I only need a pepper and maybe some sour cream, but I can quickly pick those up when I take H-Bomb to the store for his after-school snack for the ride home. Doesn't that sound better than standing in the miniscule dried bean section looking for lentils you know you won't find? It did to me. And here we are.

I did make a couple slight changes, so check out the link above for Liza's recipe. Basically, I increased the olive oil, substituted some flat parsley for the cilantro and meant to use chicken broth, but accidentally grabbed beef. Not too major.

This is a lovely, easy soup, very filling and delicious with a dollop of sour cream. Obviously you can use any kind of broth, and just using vegetable broth makes this a simple vegetarian soup as well.


Black Bean Soup
Serves 4

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 red or yellow pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt & black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon chile powder (I used about 1/2 tablespoon because our chile powder is very strong)
2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
2 cups (or 1 14 ounce can) chicken broth (or beef or vegetable broth)
1/4 cup fresh, flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Juice of half of a lime

Heat the olive oil in a large sauce pan or small soup pot. Add the onions and peppers and heat until peppers are soft and onions are translucent. Stir in garlic, salt, pepper, and chili powder. Add black beans and vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Simmer on low heat for 10 - 15 minutes (until soup starts to thicken a little). Stir in cilantro. Remove 1 cup of soup from the pot and set aside. Blend the remaining soup with a hand blender or with a food processor until relatively smooth. Return reserved soup to blended soup and stir in lime juice. Top individual servings with low-fat sour cream.