Soup’s On!
Nothing is more warming than a hot bowl of soup on a chilly day, nothing more nourishing than bone broth, in any form.

We eat soup once or twice a week, sometimes more, in the fall and winter months. I’ve been wanting to share this one for quite some time now.
My black bean soup recipe is a melding of this one from allrecipes.com and Rachel Ray’s. I didn’t love some of the veggies (celery) in Rachel’s version, and I did love the seasonings in the allrecipes.com version. A little here, a little there, and voila!
A simple, vegetable-laden, meatless or chicken stock based soup that we could eat once a week. Some of the beans and veggies are pureed, so it’s kid-friendly to boot.


Black Bean Soup Recipe
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Soup
Ingredients
- 1–2 Tbs. oil (extra virgin olive (use the code STEWARDSHIP for 10% off at that site!) or coconut oil)
- 1 chopped onion
- 1 chopped red pepper
- 2–3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 chopped jalapeno (to taste)
- 3 carrots, chopped or sliced
- 1–2 tsp. chili powder
- 2 tsp.-1 Tbs. ground cumin
- 4 c. homemade chicken stock (or use the “broth” from cooking dry beans, with or without adding extra veggies for flavor)
- 3 cans or ~6 cups cooked black beans
- 1 15–oz. can (or home canned pint) diced or whole tomatoes
- 1 c. frozen corn (optional)
- 1/4 tsp. ground pepper
- 1/2 tsp. salt, if using unsalted broth
Instructions
- In a large pot, heat oil over medium and cook onion and peppers for a few minutes until soft.
- Mince garlic 5-10 minutes before adding to pot for best nutrition.
- Add garlic, carrots, and all spices and cook and stir for one minute.
- Pour in the broth, 2 cups (or 1 can) of beans, corn and pepper.
- Bring to a boil.
- The can of tomatoes and remaining beans need to be pureed before adding to the pot. I like to do this in the can or jar with my stick blender, but a food processor or blender works well too.
- Add to the pot, and once everything is boiling, reduce the heat to low.
- Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the carrots are tender.
- New option: I tried adding 2/3 of the beans to the pot along with the tomatoes, then blending everything right in the pot with my stick blender. I added the final two cups of beans whole. The resulting soup is not as appetizing to look at, but the taste is the same and more vegetables were pureed, so more got past the kid-meter.
Notes
Serves at least 8. Easy to double!
Cost: $3-4 for the whole pot, under 50 cents a serving.
Serve with a dollop of sour cream or guacamole on top and some shredded cheese to pass at the table.

Our favorite side for this Mexi-style soup is cheese quesadillas on homemade whole wheat tortillas. They make the best dippers!

Crunchy tortillas chips also go perfectly next to the black bean soup, and there’s nothing wrong with a simple piece of sourdough toast (check out my honey whole wheat sourdough bread, an instructional video in the Traditional Cooking School sourdough eCourse).
RELATED: Bean Soup in the Instant Pot
Can I just say that I was thrilled to get our legumes back after going no-grains whole hog, and this soup was the first dish I made? Yum.
As you can see in the photo, the toppings can take this from a meatless Lenten Friday sacrifice (not really) to a gourmet indulgence. Try anything that makes sense for Mexican food!

My son Paul wrote a real cookbook!
He and 4 friends have published a cookbook by kids, for kids, all healthy foods — Chef Junior.
This recipe is one that inspired him to tweak it for the book!
If you want to see how kids write to kids and get some fab bonuses for supporting these 5 teen authors, buy the book and then redeem the bonuses the kids created!
This soup is wonderful!
Thanks for the rating Jaclyn!
Simple ingredients, but so so delicious. I’ve served it with all sorts of extras, but I think my favorite is over rice!
Thanks for the rating Kim! 🙂
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Just to clarify, my specific questions are:
1. What cooking method?
2. How long?
3. Water to bean ratio?
4. Any additives?
5. Cook in soaking water or fresh water?
6. How long to soak?
7. Any other tips?
Thank you!!!
Just found your Bean Manifesto! Not sure why the search didn’t return it, but it’s perfect. Thanks!
Glad you found the huge post! 🙂 Katie
Just learning to use dry beans. Got some soaking for this soup, but since I bought them in bulk, I don’t have the basic instructions. Is there any way in particular that you usually cook them? I recently cooked some pinto beans and then some kidney beans in the crock pot. They turned out a bit mushy. They made delicious refried beans, but there were really too mushy for much else. I didn’t find any basic instructions on Kitchen Stewardship via the search function. Please point me in the right direction if I’m just missing it. Thanks!
I was wondering.. Does this freeze well? Ie. taste as good as it did before frozen?
Julia,
A huge yes and yes! I double and freeze this one OFTEN. 😉 Katie
Making this to take to some friends of ours who just had a baby. Unfortunately, I can’t have any yet (pregnant and have an aversion to tomatoes…). It sure smells good though!
I’m totally making this tonight! It’s one of my first ‘meal-planned’ meals, so I’ve soaked the beans and purchased the right ingredients. I’m planning to mostly puree it, and eat it with “homemade” tortilla chips: tortillas brushed with butter, cut in quarters, and baked (SO good).
Thanks for all the great resources you put out here for us to use!
I just made this soup last night and is it was AMAZING! My picky 5 year old tried it reluctantly and ended up loving it and asking for more! I will be making this on a regular basis now. I love your blog, thanks!
I made this black bean soup for my family yesterday and it was a big hit! My husband and I put our crushed tortilla chips in our bowls with the cheese and loved the sour cream on top. I crumbled up some corn muffin and mixed in soup to make a mush my 20-month-old can pick up with her spoon. She eats it up!
And just in case anyone’s wondering about variations, it’s very tasty even without bell pepper and jalapeno (which I omit from everything due to personal aversion). And we doubled the corn because we love it in soup. 🙂
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Just found your blog it is FANTASTIC!
Thanks, Jan! Welcome! Looks like you’re doing some great big changes at your house, too. What a neat blog idea! 🙂 Katie
This looks great Katie, thanks. I’m soaking black beans tonight for a bean soup with cheddar cornmeal muffins cooked right in but will try this soon.
This is timely. We had a good crop of black turtle beans, which I’ve been busy shelling. We love black bean soup but I don’t have a recipe yet. I’ll definitely try yours.
This soup sounds yummy! I will have to try it soon. One question for you, I hope you can help- for the past several weeks I have been unable to connect to Wardeh’s site, either directly or by clicking on a link from someone’s blog. I can’t connect using your link to her either. Is it just my computer connection or are others experiencing this? I thought maybe she changed domains, but that doesn’t explain the link not taking me there. Ideas?
MaryEllen,
I just tried the links myself and had no problem…that is so very odd. I’ll email Wardeh and see if she has had anyone else say that. She didn’t change domains, but she did add some security, only to the eCourse sections though. Best, Katie
I think I know what we’re going to have for dinner tonight (thanks to some canned black beans) Thank you! 🙂
Looking forward to trying this!
Kara,
It’s kind of crazy that I could share a recipe and people are putting it on their table that very night! The Internet makes me grin sometimes… 😉 Katie
Yes, the internet is pretty great for things like that 🙂
Wanted to add that we LOVED it and two out of three kids emptied their bowls – which, at our house, is a pretty major accomplishment. Getting to eat their soup w/ tortilla chips was a pretty good “sell” point too LOL
Thanks!