Easy Black Bean Soup
Black Bean Soup is easy, healthy, and delicious! Add fun toppings like crumbled chips, avocado, and red onion and even meat lovers will rave about this gluten free, vegan soup!
Is there a dish you’ve enjoyed at restaurants, but which absolutely refused to turn out at home? For me it was Black Bean Soup.
Yes, I’d tried a few times but, sadly, my attempts at this healthy classic always came up short.
So when the NY Times put out a recipe they swore was delicious and easy, I was all in. Made mostly with canned ingredients, I can attest it was as tasty and fast as they claimed.
Now true confessions, I did make a couple changes (which you can take or leave) that ramped up both the flavor and nutrition. But if you need to super streamline, just skip my adds.
What is Salsa Verde?
Per Wikipedia, “salsa verde (lit. ‘green sauce‘) is a spicy green sauce made from tomatillo and green chili peppers.”
I knew I’d love it but couldn’t find it in my small town grocery store. In the end I headed to Walmart (in the next “big” town over) and decided their store brand was both tasty and economical.
Next summer I may have to grow some tomatillos and try my hand at homemade. Just for fun!
Why You’ll Love This!
Flavorful. With tasty peppers, onions, salsa verde and cilantro, this soup is a taste sensation. And you totally won’t miss the meat!
Easy. Even my (optional) extra step doesn’t keep this soup from being super quick and easy to complete.
Healthy. With healthy beans, peppers, onions, and salsa verde this soup packs a lot of nutrition. It’s even vegan so perfect to rock your meatless Monday!
Step by Step Overview
(Optional first step). Chop onion and fresh peppers in the food processor or by hand. In a large pot, heat the oil then sauté the onions and pepper until just tender.
Add the remaining soup ingredients to the pot, except the cilantro. Bring to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes, or until everything is tender.
Using an immersion blender (or removing a cup at a time to a stand blender), puree a little of the soup to thicken it. You can thicken more or less, according to your preference.
Stir in the chopped cilantro. Taste and add salt and pepper if needed.
Serve soup plain or over rice. Garnish as desired or set out options and let guests garnish their own.
Tips & FAQs
Adding some nice garnishes is a must for this. We especially liked crushed tortillas and chopped red onion for the crunch they added. And chopped avocado and cilantro are great for color, creaminess and flavor.
I like to make my own black beans from dried for this. It’s not that canned beans are bad, but homemade are super economical and then I don’t need to worry about anything leaching from a can lining.
And it turns out that 1-pound bag of dried black beans comes out to the perfect amount. Just save about 2 cups of the cooking liquid to make up for the missing canning liquid.
If you have some soup leftover, you may find that it’s thickened by the second day. If it’s no longer to your liking, feel free to thin with a little water.
Delicious Tortilla Chip Recipes
- Black Bean Soup from Art of Natural Living
- Chilaquiles Hash from A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
- Chole Chilaquiles from Magical Ingredients
- How to Make Homemade Tortilla Chips from Jen Around the World
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Black Bean Soup
Ingredients
- 1 large onion optional but recommended
- 2 large mild to medium peppers (optional but recommended, can be previously frozen
- 1-2 Tablespoons olive oil if using the extra onion and pepper
- 3 minced garlic cloves or 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 60 ounces black beans including liquid 4 15-ounce cans or 7 cups home cooked beans plus 2 cups cooking liquid (from 1 lb dry beans)
- 3 1/2 cups mild salsa verde from 2 15-ounce cans, or homemade
- 8 ounces chopped green chiles 2 4-ounce cans, optional if you use your own peppers
- 2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- ½ cup chopped cilantro plus more if desired for serving
- Salt and black pepper
- Garnish: Any combination of lime wedges additional cilantro, sour cream, pickled red onions, queso fresco, tortilla chips and sliced avocado, radishes and fresh chiles, for topping
Instructions
- (Optional first step). Chop onion and fresh peppers in the food processor or by hand. In a large pot, heat the oil then sauté the onions and pepper until just tender.
- Add the remaining soup ingredients to the pot, except the cilantro. Bring to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes, or until everything is tender.
- Using an immersion blender (or removing a cup at a time to a stand blender), puree a little of the soup to thicken it. You can thicken more or less, according to your preference.
- Stir in the chopped cilantro. Taste and add salt and pepper if needed.
- Serve soup plain or over rice. Garnish as desired or set out options and let guests garnish their own.
This is one of our favorite soups!
Black bean soup has become my little grandsons favorite soups!
Inger, this black bean soup looks like the kind of cozy, no‑nonsense bowl that saves weeknights, and I love how you’ve taken something so pantry friendly and given it real personality with the salsa verde, peppers, and that sneaky cocoa powder for depth. I’m pretty sure this is going straight into my regular rotation.
I love a hearty black bean soup. They’re so delicious and a perfect pantry recipe.
Black bean soup is really wonderful — love your recipe and how simple it is to make.