A.P.'s Food Porn: Vegan Black Bean Soup

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil (I don’t use the oil)

1 large onion, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 tablespoon ground cumin (I used 1 teaspoon)

1 pinch black pepper

4 cups vegetable broth

4 (15 ounce) cans black beans

1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn

1 (14.5 ounce) can crushed tomatoes

Instructions

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Sauté onion, celery, carrots and garlic for 5 minutes. Season with chili powder, cumin, and black pepper; cook for 1 minute. Stir in vegetable broth, 2 cans of beans, and corn. Bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, in a food processor or blender, process remaining 2 cans beans and tomatoes until smooth. Stir into boiling soup mixture, reduce heat to medium, and simmer for 15 minutes.

~Source: allrecipes.com

Patti’s Notes: I didn’t alter this one too much. I don’t use oil when sautéing my vegetables for soup, I just throw them in the dry pot and the onion sweats enough to bring on the moisture. I cut back on the cumin because I think it has a way of overpowering a dish. I also added 3-4 shakes of red pepper flakes. One thing I did was based on the comments posted in the original recipe: most of them gave rave reviews but several said it was too salty. I used all low sodium canned items (black beans, corn, tomatoes). I drained and rinsed the beans but added the corn without draining. I also didn’t bother leaving out the 2 cans of beans and tomatoes to zip thru the blender. That’s just to thicken up the soup so I zapped the soup with my immersion blender a few times. (Don’t get carried away. I have a tendency to overdo it sometimes with my magic wand!) It was thick and hearty just like it was supposed to be. Personally I think it could use a pinch of salt. Low sodium-schmodium. :wink: Super de-lish.

I made this once before but un-vegan-ed it by adding a ham bone that I wanted to use and didn’t feel like Split Pea Soup. I also used chicken stock instead of veggie broth because that’s what I had in the pantry. I added the ham bone when I added the canned items and stock. I let it simmer until the meat was falling off the bone. I removed the bone and chopped up the ham. Before adding the ham back in I used the immersion blender to thicken up the soup. I personally don’t like meat in my soup (with a few exceptions like my taco soup) so I put some soup aside for me before adding the ham back in. Paul loved it. I took some to work and my co-workers enjoyed it too.

Healthy-O-Meter: This recipe is super healthy, good source of fiber, low sodium (my version), practically no fat, on 3 grams in the entire pot (1 gram in the can of corn and ½ gram in each can of beans and I didn’t use the oil) and let’s not forget the trendy gluten free.