15 Best Winter Soups #7

#7. Black Bean Soup

3 cups cooked black beans (around 525 grams of cooked beans)
1 cup sweet corn kernels (around 100 grams)
1 large red onion, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, roughly chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled and finely chopped
½ medium red bell pepper, finely chopped
4-5 large garlic cloves, minced
Juice of a large lime (around 3 tablespoons, adjust to taste)
¼ cup roughly chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon cumin powder
½ teaspoon red chili flakes (adjust to taste)
Ground black pepper, to taste
Salt, to taste
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
4.5 cups vegetable stock or water (adjust the quantity to get the desired consistency)

Heat oil in a large cooking pot. Add chopped onions, celery, and carrot. Cook until the onion turns translucent.
Add minced garlic and sauté for a few seconds until the raw smell of garlic goes away.
Add chopped bell pepper and corn kernels. Sauté for 3-4 minutes.
Add red chili flakes and cumin powder. Sauté for around 30 seconds.
Next, add tomato paste and cook for another 30 seconds.
Add cooked black beans and mix. Cook for 1-2 minutes without liquid.
Add vegetable stock, salt, black pepper, and bay leaf. Mix well.
Cook covered for around 20 minutes.
Remove the bay leaf.
Transfer around 1.5 cups of beans and vegetables along with some liquid to a blending jar. Allow it to cool slightly, then blend to make a paste. Transfer the paste back to the cooking pot and cook for another 5 minutes on medium heat, then turn off the heat.
Finally, add lime juice and cilantro. Mix well.
Serve hot with toppings of choice.

Both home-cooked and canned beans are fine to be used in this bean soup.
You can skip adding corn kernels and bell pepper to enjoy a simpler black bean soup.
A similar bean soup can be made using any other bean of choice too.
Don't forget to remove the bay leaf before blending the soup.
You can also blend a portion of the soup using an immersion blender (hand blender).
The steam of hot soup may cause the stand blender to explode, so it's better to allow the soup to become slightly cooler before blending. You may add a few tablespoons of water to the soup or transfer it to a wide bowl before putting it in the blending jar to speed up the cooling process.
I blended around 1.5 cups of the soup. If you prefer thicker soup, blend more or add less liquid to the soup. If you prefer a thinner soup, blend less or skip blending.
More vegetables can be added to this Mexican bean soup like sweet potato, potato, broccoli, green beans, etc.
You can use readymade Mexican seasonings of your choice to flavor this spicy black bean soup like Fajita seasoning, taco seasoning, enchilada seasoning, etc.
More recipe tips and tricks are shared in the post above, please follow them to make this recipe.