15 Minutes to Black Bean Soup

Howdy!  We’ve been cleaning up the pantry and trying to eat as much as we can from it.  Since we’re moving this week, I didn’t want to have to lug extra groceries to and from the apartment to the house.  Here is a recipe I came up with that uses all the canned black beans from our pantry!  Using canned black beans is super simple and quick.  Of course, you can always soak 1 pound of black beans and cook them the old way as well.  I love a good ham hock in my bean soup, but again we were going for speed here.  If you have more time, simmer with a ham hock.  This was a quick and easy lunch for us and great to put into lunchboxes!

Black Bean Soup
6-8 servings

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, diced
2-3 bell peppers, diced (you can use any color combination you like.  I used red and green)
4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 cans (about 15 ounces each) black beans, rinsed and drained
28 ounces (2 – 14 ounce cans) chicken broth
1 (14 ounce ish) can diced tomatoes  (use with green chilies if you like spicy!)
2 teaspoons cumin powder
1  teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 bay leaf
salt

1.  Heat a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat with the oil.  Add onion, peppers and garlic.  Saute for 3-4 minutes.
2.  Add beans, broth, diced tomatoes, spices and bay leaf.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
3.  Remove bay leaf and add salt to taste.  Enjoy!