A quick and easy flavor-packed Black Bean Soup with onions, carrot, celery, garlic, tomatoes, green chiles, and black beans, all in a vegetable broth seasoned with cumin, marjoram, and cilantro.
Course Soup
Cuisine American
Keyword black bean soup with canned beans, easy black bean soup. spicy black bean soup, vegetarian black bean soup
Prep Time 10 minutesminutes
Cook Time 25 minutesminutes
Servings 6bowls
Calories 73kcal
Author Beth Pierce
Ingredients
2tablespoonsolive oil
1large yellow onion chopped
2carrots peeled and chopped
2ribs celery chopped
3clovesgarlic minced
¼teaspooncrushed red pepper
¼teaspoonfresh ground black pepper
1teaspoonmarjoramor oregano
2teaspoonsground cumin
4cupsvegetable broth or chicken broth
1can15 ounce fire roasted tomatoes
17 ounce can diced green chiles
315 ounce cans low sodium black beans drained and rinsed
1tablespoonschopped fresh cilantro
Instructions
Heat oil in a Dutch oven or heavy stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the onions, carrots, and celery, cooking until the onions and celery are tender.
Reduce the heat and add the garlic, crushed red pepper, ground black pepper, marjoram, and cumin. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Increase the heat to medium-high. Add the vegetable broth, fire-roasted tomatoes, diced green chiles, and black beans. Bring the soup to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
If desired, purée a little of the soup with an immersion blender. Garnish with cilantro or red pepper flakes and a splash of fresh lime juice, and serve.
Notes
This recipe calls for canned beans containing large amounts of salt. Be sure to drain and rinse to get the excess sodium off.
Several brands have low-sodium canned black beans. If they have them take advantage of them, as the salt from the low-sodium beans and the fire-roasted tomatoes is plenty for this recipe.
To keep the soup vegetarian and vegan-friendly, stick with vegetable broth.
I really like the fire-roasted canned tomatoes because they have a unique smoky taste. But any canned diced tomatoes will work.
To kick up the heat in this recipe, add chipotle chiles in adobo sauce or some ground cayenne pepper.
This soup comes together quickly. The simmering time is fairly flexible as the contents are warm in about 10 minutes, but if you want the flavors to meld together more, you can simmer for 20-30 minutes.
If desired, purée a portion of the soup using an immersion blender. Blend as little or as much as you like to reach your desired consistency. You can also use a stand blender but remove the fill cap lid for heat to escape. Top thicker soup with tortilla chips, fresh lemon juice, sliced avocado, sour cream, guacamole, or salsa.
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Freeze for up to 3 months by ladling fully cooled soup into quart freezer bags. Then lay on baking sheets in the freezer until fully frozen. This allows for easier storage in the freezer. Be sure to mark the contents and the date it was frozen on the bag.