It's winter here in the Northern Hemisphere, but in my particular region - Southern Ontario, instead of being snowed in, we're being gloomed in. Say what you want about snow, but at least it's bright white. The current colour palette outside of my office window is bilge pump grey.
Either way, it's soup season. Soup is kind of my thing. This black bean soup is made with canned black beans, cumin, coriander, vegetable or chicken broth and oranges. It can be made vegan, vegetarian or normal person.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. omg. I wish I could have seen your face after that line.
O.K., so black bean soup isn't the most beautiful of soups, but it's comforting, filling and absolutely delicious. If you want to go the vegetarian or vegan route use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth throughout the recipe.
Gather your Ingredients
chicken broth ◻︎ black beans ◻︎ onion ◻︎ garlic ◻︎ carrot ◻︎ celery ◻︎ oranges ◻︎ lime ◻︎ cumin ◻︎ coriander ◻︎ pepper ◻︎ olive oil
Steps
TIP - If you're a lazy cook who ends up eating cookies for dinner because it's faster than cooking, here's a tip: PREP YOUR INGREDIENTS IN THE MORNING. By the time dinner rolls around making dinner won't seem so overwhelming.
- Prep your ingredients. Drain the beans, measure out the spices, dice the onion, crush the garlic, chop the celery and carrots then peel and section the oranges.
If you're prepping in the morning, cover everything and put it in the refrigerator until you're ready to take the next cooking steps.
- Sauté onions & garlic in oil until translucent.
- Add spices to pot and toast until aromatic (around 10 seconds) then add carrots and celery. Cook until softened.
- As you cook, deglaze the pan with your 2 cups of reserved chicken broth. This adds flavour and prevents burning any fond.
- Add 3 cups of chicken broth and the drained but NOT rinsed beans. All that saucy stuff on the beans and at the bottom of the can is full of bean flavour.
- Simmer for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes of simmering, add oranges, a squeeze of lime juice and pepper. Simmer another 15 minutes.
- Add contents of pot to a blender and blend until smooth. Add as much of your reserved 2 cups of chicken broth as you'd like to thin the soup.
Garnish with a dollop of sour cream and a squeeze of lime juice. If you have cilantro around chop some of that up and add it to the top too. (you can also mix some lime juice into sour cream to make a lime sour cream to top the soup with)
VEGANS: You know what to do. Use a cashew or tofu based sour cream.
This recipe came together after spending years trying to replicate a soup I used to get at Toronto's The Swan restaurant. It was a velvety, blended black bean soup with Latin flavours and NO tomatoes.
I tried a lot of online soup recipes in my quest but none of them were what I was looking for and some of them were just plain bad.
That's what I get for using random Internet sites (like this one 😆) to get a good recipe. I was looking for good soup and sometimes Internet recipes aren't what you'd call ... good.
When in doubt, I usually go with Serious Eats or Epicurious for recipes.
Serious Eats often looks at the science of cooking and Epicurious - well they have squirrel recipes which means they're nothing if not adventurous.
By the time I finally landed on this as my final recipe I couldn't even remember what the original soup tasted like - but I knew this one was really good.
I didn't steer you wrong with the Antojitos did I? No. No, I did not. So I suggest if you're looking for the best Black Bean Soup recipe, you try this one.
Creamy Black Bean Soup
Classic black bean soup with flavours of black bean, cumin, corriander and a hint of acid from oranges and lime..
Ingredients
- 2 cans black beans (14 oz each)
- 3 cups chicken stock + 2 cups more for thinning ( vegetable stock for vegetarians/vegans )
- 2 tablespoons oil (approximately)
- 1 cup onions, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 large carrot, chopped small
- 1 stalk celery, chopped small
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander (more if you love coriander)
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin (more if you love cumin)
- 2 oranges, peeled, sectioned and seeded (Sumo oranges if you can find them)
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- Squeeze of fresh lime juice
Instructions
- Prep your ingredients. (drain beans, chop carrot, celery, onion and garlic, peel and section oranges removing visible membrane.)
- In a pot, sauté onions and garlic in oil until translucent.
- Add coriander and cumin to the bottom of the pot to toast until aromatic (10 seconds or so). Add carrot & celery then sauteé until tender. (you can add a few tablespoons of broth to speed things up)
- Add beans and broth to contents in pot. Simmer ½ an hour.
- Add orange, pepper and lime juice to the pot (just a squeeze of lime … you can add more later). Simmer 15 minutes.
- Remove pot from heat.
- Pour soup into blender and blend until smooth. Add the reserved broth to the blender until the soup is the consistency you like.
- Serve with a dollop or swirl of sour cream on top and fresh a fresh squeeze of lime juice.
Nutrition Information
Yield 10 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 149Total Fat 4gSaturated Fat 0gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 3gCholesterol 1mgSodium 403mgCarbohydrates 23gFiber 7gSugar 5gProtein 7g
It's good. Even though it is on the Internet. But the difference between the regular Internet and my Internet, is my Internet doesn't lie.
My Internet also doesn't have squirrel recipes.
I'm not sure why this popped up on me but it came at a good time! I'm making this tonight!
my first good deed of 2016 was making your black bean soup. it came out fantastic. i could've kicked myself for forgetting to pick up lime but hey, all the more reason to do it again.
best of all, the husband loved it and did not even hint at the omittance of meat.
this one will have a place of honor right next to carrot soup.
onto the next one then.
:0B
This looks wonderful. Does it freeze well?
Funny you should ask. I was just thinking today I couldn't remember if I'd ever frozen this or not before. I know I'm going to have leftovers so I'll be freezing a lot of it this time. I don't see any reason why it shouldn't freeze great. It's just black beans and broth really. Wish me luck, lol. ~ karen!
Hi,
How many servings will this recipe make (thinking of serving it as a starter, so small portions).
Thank you!
a.
Excellent question Anya, lol. I'm not entirely sure but I'd say around 4 *large* servings. Maybe a bit more. ~ karen!
Karen, I made this for my parents today. I bought the stuff last week, but my mother was so vocal about her hatred of black beans in any form. I finally got her to let me make it today and both she and my Dad (who is a retired Food Science & Nutrition professor) loved it. Dad wished it was a little thicker, but that was my fault because it got a little too much chicken stock in it. His second bowl was a bit thicker and he was quite delighted with it.
Really? I'm very surprised your black bean hating mother liked it, lol! Thanks for reminding me about it. I'm gonna get some beans soaking and make it during my week off between Christmas and New Years! ~ karen
I did enjoy this post. If I may suggest, add a half tablespoon of pomegranate viniger or a high quality balsamic.
Interesting inclusion Amateur. I just made this soup this week (with soaked beans as opposed to canned). It is still one of my favourite soups. MUST add some lime juice on top at the end with the sour cream. SO good. ~ karen!
Finally got around to trying this soup tonight. I had some friends over. They LOVED this black bean soup... wanted to know "what that SPECIAL flavor is in the soup." (How the heck would I know what they're talking about? The cumin? The coriander? (Couldn't have been that... I didn't have any!) The oranges? The lime juice? The BLACK BEANS, maybe?
Anyway, thanks for another great soup!
This is a damned tasty recipe. Just made it.
Isn't it good? I have an even easier soup recipe I make allll the time. 1 large head of broccoli, 4 cups of chicken broth (homemade really does taste best). Cut up broccoli including smaller stems (no the huge main one). Just hack it up. Throw it into the chicken broth, simmer until broccoli is soft. Throw it all in the blender and whiz it until really smooth. Add salt and fresh cracked pepper. Top with a tiny bit of shredded cheese and a few garlic croutons. No need for milk, cream of anything. OMG. Good. Having it tonight as a matter of fact, LOL. ~ karen!
I thought black beans didn't create gas...
I can tell you from experience ... that is untrue. ~ karen!
Love this recipe...in fact I've been making it for years! The oranges and sherry make it awesome!
Just for clarity, everyone should know that it is Molly Katzen's original recipe from the Moosewood Cookbook, except with canned vs. dried beans. Pretty sure Epicurious credits her with this, so I knew you would want to too.
Wow thank you! Orange?
Yep. Orange. You'll find this tastes like authentic black bean soup because it isn't tomato based. I'm not sure why so many lunatics insist on having a tomato base for black bean soups but it's wrong. Very, very wrong. I also suggest you find some sort of vegan alternative to sour cream because the dollop on top *makes* the soup. I still vote for you becoming a non vegan. ~ k
I just made this, and Oh. My. God. It is freaking delicious!! I will be making this often, toots or not.
Carly - Yeah, I'm a big fan of soups! The Szechwan (Szechuan) Carrot soup with Ginger is also really good! Glad it worked out for you. Farty pants. ~ karen
Hey Karen,
Just wanted you to know that your post inspired me to finally write a post on my home-made mac n' cheese - yes, it took me this long! Anywho, you're mentioned as is a link to your blog (specifically, this post). So, if you're still searching for a potential mac n' cheese recipe to add to your list, I would be happy to offer mine: http://www.yourlifevents.com/2011/08/02/feast-seriously-fabulous-home-made-mac-n-cheese/
oh, p.s., I just read your response to my original comment above. Yes, I was obviously in OCD moment when I wrote that comment-sometimes I get a little, well soap boxy;)
This soup sounds totally amaze-balls! and i don't use amaze-balls lightly. I'm going to make some tomorrow night.
Thanks for this recipe, Karen! I saw this when you posted it but just got around to making it last night. It's the best black bean soup I've ever made and the kids couldn't get enough. Next time I'll double the recipe. Mmmmm.
Bess - I'm glad you liked it! Yay. :) ~ karen
If you use dried beans and soak them and rinse well instead of canned beans, you lose the toot factor. Then again, maybe that's what you were after all along...
Jaime ~ Yes, um ... well no ... I am not going for the toot factor. I didn't know what a gas pain was until I ate black bean soup. Eep. ~ karen
Oatmeal...not oatmmeal........but you knew that..
Hah! Yes, I did know that. :) I know about Beano. In fact I even have Beano in my medicine cabinet. It expired in 2003. I bought it ... then never took a single one of them! Perhaps I'll try again. Thx.! ~ karen
Karen,
There is a product called BEANO (as in there will Be No Gas, I guess) comes in tablet and liquid form. Works great to de-toot beans, broccoli, oatmmeal........seriously...........I have no personal investment in Beano....except my GI system loves it...
you gotta watch out for dem innernetz folk ;)
Hi. I just discovered your blog and thought I'd weigh in on the beans thing. I just got this book called "The Full Plate Diet" and it says, "The gas is caused by intestinal bacteria breaking down the natural sugars found in beans. This sugar is water soluble and is on the surface of the bean, so if you soak your beans overnight and then drain off the water before cooking them in fresh water, the gas problems will go away." I think this means you have to cook your own beans, but that does save money and make them more healthy (less sodium).
Also, to Jessy...I hated beans as a kid and am just discovering I really like them. My parents only served them as baked beans or in chili as well. Lentils are incredible. I suggest picking up some Madras Lentils from the Indian section of your grocery store and try them out. It tastes just like chili, only healthier. They're good over rice or I like to mix it with cheese for a yummy nacho dip.
Thanks Traci! I soak my own beans the odd time but if you want black bean soup and you want it NOW ... you're stuck with the canned ones. And I must say ... I love my sodium soaked beans. ;) ~ karen