This Black Bean Soup is ridiculously flavorful and packed to the brim with good-for-you ingredients! Prepare this soup in the slow cooker or pressure cooker with minimal hands-on time!
8cupschicken or vegetable stock/broth(like Swanson)
2heaping tablespoonschipotle peppers in adobo sauce(measure the peppers and surrounding sauce) (Note 2)
1bay leaf
2tablespoonsfresh lime juice
Optional: 1/3 cup chopped cilantro, large ripe avocado and/or sour cream
Optional: tortilla chips or strips, for serving
Instructions
PREP: For a quicker prep, give the onion, pepper, and carrots a quick coarse chop and add along with the garlic cloves to a food processor; pulse to dice into small pieces.
VEGGIES: Select "sauté" in the pressure cooker ( see Note 3 for slow cooker instructions). Add olive oil and once hot, add the diced onion, pepper, and carrot. Cook, stirring occasionally until softened, about 8-10 minutes. Season to taste; I add 2 tsp salt & 1/2 tsp pepper. Add in garlic and all the seasonings and sauté for 1 minute or until fragrant.
ADD BEANS AND COOK: Add the rinsed beans, chicken/vegetable stock, the chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, and bay leaf. Stir everything together, add lid and seal the instant pot, turn the valve to seal, and cook on manual mode for 45 minutes (it takes about 15-20 minutes to get up to pressure). Once finished, allow for a natural release for 30 minutes before releasing the rest of the pressure manually.
FINISHING: Remove the lid of the pressure cooker. Remove the chipotle peppers and bay leaf; discard. Pull out 4 cups of soup and blend (Note 4). Return blended mixture to the instant pot and stir through. Add in lime juice and optional cilantro. Taste and adjust seasonings. (I usually add another 1 teaspoon of salt here (really just depends on how salty the chicken/vegetable stock used is; add slowly until flavors sing).
ENJOY: Ladle into bowls and add your favorite toppings. We love a diced avocado and/or sour cream, an extra squeeze of lime juice, and lots of tortilla chips on the side for dipping.
Video
Notes
Note 1: Black beans: Rinse the beans in a strainer and pick through them, discarding any shriveled beans, debris or rocks.Note 2: Chipotle peppers: The chipotles add a great flavor, but only a touch of heat since we remove them after cooking. If you choose to leave them in and blend, the soup is quite spicy (start with blending in one, then both if you want it super spicy). Leftover chipotles from the can freeze beautifully. (Read blog post for details.)Note 3: Slow cooker directions: Sauté diced onion, pepper, and carrot in your slow cooker if it has a sauté function or in a pot on the stovetop if not. Cook, stirring occasionally until softened, about 8-10 minutes. Season to taste; I add 2 tsp salt & 1/2 tsp pepper. Add in garlic and all the seasonings and sauté for 1 minute or until fragrant. Transfer everything from pot to slow cooker. Add the rinsed beans, chicken/vegetable stock, the chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, and bay leaf. Stir everything together, add lid, and cook 8 hours on low or high for 4 hours or until beans are tender. Refer to step #4 and 5 in the recipe card for finishing things off.Note 4: Blending: Remember that heat expands, so increase the speed slowly and watch it carefully to avoid soup exploding out or over. Never fill a blender more than halfway full at a time. Remove the center knob from the blender lid and replace that with a clean kitchen towel to avoid splatters. The blender needs to be able to release steam!