Spicy Black Bean Soup (20 Min)
- Updated on Jan 05, 2015
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Here’s what I was thinking when I started to experiment with soup recipes: “Why the hell bother making a soup from scratch when I can just buy a can?
It’s clearly faster and it should be healthy too, right?! Are we wasting our time? Should HurryTheFoodUp’s soup recipes just HurryTheFuckOff?”
I quickly wrote down what I require from my ideal soup: It should…
- …be at least vegetarian.
- …contain only moderate sodium levels.
- …taste great.
- …be reasonably priced.
- …and be available in any bigger grocery store.
I still haven’t found a canned soup that meets my requirements, especially with the sodium levels being the way they are.
Where do they get all the salt from anyway? Do they use sea water when they’re making it? Some soups are so salty they could float a rock.
Instead, I worked on perfecting my Black Bean Soup recipe, inspired by a visit to a Mexican mate’s house.
You can whip it up in just over 20 minutes and it tastes so good you’ll be licking the bowl clean.
Cumin, red pepper flakes, vinegar and cilantro do their magic and add flavor instead of a truck load of salt.
Add some avocado and bread to make a full (and fulfilling) meal out of it.
Health Benefits – Spicy Black Bean Soup
I saved the best till last. The fiber to protein ratio of black beans is 1:1, giving you about 15g of both per serving.
Apart from energizing you while simultaneously keeping you full, the high amount of fiber and protein helps to keep your blood sugar balance in check – something which helps to prevent type 2 diabetes in the long run (1, 2).
Pretty awesome, right?!
PS. A final question – do you ever buy canned soups?
Ingredients
- 1 tsp olive oil
- ½ onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 bell pepper, red
- 1.5 cups black beans, cooked (~1 can, 15oz/425g)
- 1.5 cups vegetable broth
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 sprigs cilantro/coriander, fresh
- 1 tsp cumin, ground
- ¼ tsp chili flakes (be careful not to make it too hot!!)
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- ½ avocado
- 1 oz cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Get a pot and add the olive oil.1 tsp olive oil
- Finely dice up the onion and mince the garlic. Throw both in the pot and let it simmer on low heat.½ onion, 2 cloves garlic
- In the meantime cut the bell pepper into small pieces and add them to the pot.1 bell pepper, red
- Rinse and drain the can of black beans.1.5 cups black beans, cooked
- Squash a few of them with a fork or your hands to give the soup a creamy touch, then throw them into the pot with a bit of love.
- Add the vegetable broth and nutritional yeast to the mix.1.5 cups vegetable broth, 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- Chop the cilantro and add it to the soup (holding a bit in reserve for garnish).2 sprigs cilantro/coriander, fresh
- Now pimp it up with the cumin, red pepper flakes and balsamic vinegar.1 tsp cumin, ground, ¼ tsp chili flakes, 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- Let the soup simmer for about 10 minutes.
- In the meantime prepare some avocado slices.½ avocado
- If you want to be naughty, finish off the soup with a slice of cheddar.1 oz cheddar cheese
- Taste test – adjust the seasoning, if necessary.
- Soups on! Garnish the bowl with a little extra cilantro, avocado and you’re ready to roll.
NOTES
Nutrition
Comments
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46 comments
I’m so excited to try this soup. A friend whose lunch smelled amazing pointed me to the recipe – she actually added a little scoop of pico to the top too! I think I’ll be trying it out tonight 🙂
I buy A LOT of canned soup – from using it in recipes to keeping some stashed in my desk at work for days that I don’t have leftovers available. It’s definitely not a matter of taste, but convenience. And as a meat eater, I will say that I have NEVER tasted a good (or even real) meat in a canned soup. Making from scratch is definitely preferred, just not always convenient.
Hi Kristine,
Oh, how cool! I’m glad this recipe’s making the round, that’s definitely a huge compliment!! 🙂
Yess, sometimes it can be a pain to make a soup from scratch. But actually, I find this one easy enough to make that it doesn’t bother me to spend a couple of minutes in front of the oven. By experience the soup is even better the next day btw 😉
Greetings to your friend!!
Soup never tastes great from a can in my opinion… but when it’s homemade… ahhh, glorious. And this is the exact kind of flavors I love! Great recipe dude!
True!! But, sometimes I fancy some ramen noodles. But thats not exactly canned soup 😉
Canned soups just don’t come close to homemade ones for me!
I totally agree! I used to eat lots of ramen noodles. I still like them, but since I have so many other quick recipes up my sleeve now, they got quite unattractive 😉
I need to get my fill of beans soon – they’re a New Years good luck tradition!
I didn’t know! But is it your personal tradition or do actually other people consider it as a tradition as well?
This looks so awesome..if only it were easy to get black beans here..canned ones are hard to find and dry ones don’t exist…
Finding black beans! Definitely a sport I’m doing every now and then as well. Spanish people love legumes and sell tons of them in their supermarkets, but for some reason they don’t sell black beans. You only get them in small corner shops. Funny that is.
Black beans and avocado is quite a bold combination… I will definitely thinking about it next time i buy an avocado 🙂
To answer the question (as all good pupils should ;)): I don’t eat canned soups and I really don’t understand why people have need to buy it. Maybe just plain lack of inspiration…
The avocado does a great job in neutralizing the spicyness in your mouth. I hope you understood my sentence, haha 😉
lol, it’s true, where do they get all that sodium from in canned soup? I’m a dietitian and I don’t even know. This soup looks great though!
Thanks for reading! Yep it’s really surprising. I was at my parents home over Christmas and found out that my mum was using a veggie broth with 4400mg of sodium per 100g. That was by far the saltiest broth I ever came across.