Black Bean Soup
Photo: Randy Mayor; Styling: Jan Gautro
This economical soup starts with a bag of dried black beans that are simmered in a mixture of tomato paste, garlic and onion. After the beans are cooked, blend the mixture to make it creamy. Top with crema Mexicana, chopped egg and cilantro.
How to Make It
Step 1
Sort and wash beans, and place in a large Dutch oven. Cover with water; cover and let stand for 8 hours. Drain beans.
Step 2
Heat 1 1/2 teaspoons oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion; cook 4 minutes, stirring often. Add 5 garlic cloves; cook 1 minute. Increase heat to medium-high. Add beans, broth, and next 7 ingredients (through chiles); bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 hour or until beans are tender. Let stand 10 minutes.
Step 3
Place half of bean mixture in a blender. Remove center piece of blender lid; secure blender lid on blender. Place a clean towel over opening in blender lid. Process until smooth. Pour into a large bowl. Repeat procedure with remaining mixture. Return soup to pan; cook 5 minutes, stirring often.
Step 4
Finely chop 1 cup cilantro and jalapeño. Combine 2 tablespoons oil, 2 garlic cloves, cilantro, jalapeño, and crema. Ladle 1 1/4 cups soup into each of 4 bowls; top each with 2 tablespoons crema. Sprinkle soup with eggs. Garnish with cilantro leaves, if desired.
oduamy's Review
This was good. I skipped the eggs. We could not find crema, so I used LF sour cream. I could have done w/o the garlic in the topping, but otherwise it was good. Next time I'll use canned black beans. My dry ones were a little too chewy and didnt blend great. The soup had a great flavor, though, and was very filling!
kdmccrayz's Review
Fabulous recipie. I used 4 cans of black beans since i have not had any luck with dried beans. This also meant that the cooking time was reduced to 20 minutes, and that was probably more generous than needed. I did not make the crema topping because i got ahead of myself and added the jalepnos to the blender. But the soup was still great. I pureed it all and thought it would be like a thin refired beans, and not be yummy. But it was actually a great consistency. I think i will save some of the beans and add at the end to have some chunks to the texture.
carrdc12's Review
This recipe was outstanding. I didn't find that the eggs added any extra "wow" so I'll leave them out next time. I mistakenly left out the cumin, and intentionally added less salt (1/2 t kosher). I also had leftover chicken broth in the freezer, so in total I added 3 cups chicken broth rather than two. I could not find Mexican Crema, but light sour cream worked fine. The cream-cilantro topping is well worth it, don't leave it out. Very high in sodium - at 800+ mg, I could be eating Campbells!
tessa8631's Review