Southwestern Black Bean Soup

This Southwestern Black Bean Soup is a quick and easy recipe full of real food nutrition and is also a good source of vegetarian protein. As a Fort Collins Nutritionist, I like to start with this soup and add some fresh vegetables like carrots or leafy greens like kale–but this soup is delicious all on its own too. Also, if you’re less worried about making this soup quick and easy, you can cook up your own black beans and use those instead of the canned ones (that is my preference but it does take longer). Any way you want to make this soup it will turn out delicious. Give it a try!

Southwestern Black Bean Soup

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2-15 ounce cans black beans, undrained

1 1/2 cups vegetable broth

1/2 cup salsa

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 teaspoon cumin

¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Preparation:

1. In a large saucepan, sauté onion in oil until soft over medium heat.

2. Add black beans, vegetable broth, salsa, chili powder, and cumin to the saucepan and simmer for about 10 minutes.

3. Put half of black bean mixture into a blender and blend until creamy. Pour blended black bean mixture back into saucepan.

4. Add cilantro and stir to combine.

5. Serve hot. Garnish with cilantro if desired.

Note: Feel free to jazz this soup up with fresh vegetables of your choice– carrots, bell peppers, kale, and spinach all make great additions to this soup!