Black Bean Soup

its been rainy and super cold here…(we might even get some snow tonight!), so last night we made the perfect cold weather dinner! i love panera’s black bean soup, and i think this one tastes really similar! i found this recipe at www.smittenkitchen.com…an adorable website with lots of fun recipes! i filed it away for the perfect night, and let me tell you…it was ridiculously good!!

BLACK BEAN SOUP
ingredients:
1 TBSP olive oil
2 medium red onions (i just used 1 large one)
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 teas ground cumin
16 oz dried black beans
1 TBSP chopped chipotle chiles from a can
7 cups hot tap water
2 TBSP fresh lime juice
2 teas coarse kosher salt (i used a little over 1 TBSP…i found it needed more)
1/4 ground black pepper

first step is to chop the onions and the bell peppers.
do any of you have the same problem i do? my eyes are so crazy sensitive to onions…its truly painful for me to cut them! so i wear goggles…(picture compliments of canaan boy)
but i ended up putting them in the food processor to finish the chopping. my eyes literally stung for the next hour…but seriously…the goggles do help! please let me in on any good tips for protecting my sensitive eyes, cause once i take off this cover, it starts all over again!
once all your veggies are chopped
heat the olive oil in a pan and add the veggies, cooking for about 8 minutes, or until beginning to brown.
but DON’T leave your recipe on the stove when the burner is on…thankfully, i caught it just in time!
add the garlic and the cumin
and cook one more minute. here’s what it should look like:
put veggies in your crockpot, along with the beans and the 7 cups of water.
add 1 TBSP of chopped chipotle peppers. (let me just tell you…the look and smell of these made me gag. but don’t leave them out!! they make all the difference in the taste of your soup)
cook on high for 3 hours. then check. you want the beans to be very tender. somehow, in the midst of cooking, my crockpot became unplugged (it might’ve been all those stray beach balls that were thrown around my house that day!) but anyway…my beans were not quite tender, and we were hungry, so i finished off the cooking on the stove for about 20 more minutes on high. so i’m not exactly sure how long it takes in the crockpot, but cook until the beans are tender, at least 3 hours!!
once the beans are tender, take out 2 cups and blend into a paste.
looks gross, but is key for thickening your soup!
add the puree back to the soup, along with salt, lime juice, and pepper.

serve over brown rice to make a hearty, filling, but really healthy, meal!
add some sour cream and a big chunk of crusty bread…i promise…you will not be disappointed!!
gotta run…our leftovers are beckoning me!!