Black Bean Soup

Black Bean Soup made with canned beans, on the table in 30 minutes, and thick enough that a spoon stands up in it. Half of it gets blended and stirred back through, which is how it turns creamy without a drop of cream going anywhere near it. This is a pantry soup that has no business tasting as good as it does.

Most 30 minute soups taste like 30 minute soups. Thin, a bit apologetic, obviously a compromise. This one doesn’t, and the reason is almost embarrassingly simple: you blend part of it and stir it back in.

That’s it. That’s the whole trick. The blended portion turns into something that coats the back of a spoon, the unblended beans stay whole for texture, and you end up with a soup that tastes like it had a much longer afternoon than it actually did.

Everything in it is pantry stuff. Canned beans, an onion, a pepper, some cumin and chili powder, broth. The lime and cilantro go in at the end and do a disproportionate amount of work. And it’s vegan as written, which is not the point but is a nice thing to be able to say when somebody asks.

30 minutes, 1 pot, and about 10 minutes of actual attention.

I have nothing against dried beans. I have quite a lot against soaking them overnight when I want soup today.

Canned black beans are already cooked, already tender, and they’ve been sitting in the can quietly developing flavor this whole time. For a blended soup, where half of it is about to become a puree anyway, the difference between canned and dried is close to nothing. You’d have to be paying very close attention.

What you do want to do is drain and rinse them properly. That liquid in the can is starchy and salty and will muddy the soup and throw your seasoning off before you’ve even started.

If you’d rather use dried, you’ll need about 2 cups dried beans, cooked until tender, which gets you roughly the same amount. Do that the day before and this recipe works the same way.

When the soup has simmered, put an immersion blender in and blend about half of it, right in the pot. Not all of it. Half.

What you’re after is a soup with body, where roughly half has turned velvety and the other half is still recognizably beans. Blend the whole thing and you’ve made a puree, which is fine but it’s a different dish and you lose every bit of texture.

No immersion blender? Ladle out 2 to 3 cups, blend it in a regular blender, and pour it back. Leave the lid cracked and cover it with a towel, because hot soup in a sealed blender expands and the results are memorable for the wrong reasons.

• Olive oil (2 tablespoons): For softening the vegetables. Nothing fancy required.
• Onion (1 medium, diced): The base of the whole thing. Give it a few minutes to actually soften before anything else goes in.
• Red bell pepper (1 medium, diced): Sweetness and color. Red rather than green, which would take this somewhere more bitter.
• Garlic (3 cloves, minced): In after the onion and pepper, and only for a minute. Garlic burns fast and burnt garlic turns the whole pot bitter.
• Ground cumin (2 teaspoons): The dominant flavor here and it earns it. Earthy and warm, and it’s what makes this taste like black bean soup rather than bean soup.
• Chili powder (1 teaspoon): Warmth rather than heat. If you want actual heat, see the variations.
• Black beans (4 cans, 15 ounces each, drained and rinsed): About 40 ounces once drained. Rinse them until the water runs clear.
• Vegetable broth (4 cups, low sodium): Low sodium so you control the salt. Regular broth plus 4 cans of beans is a salt situation you can’t walk back.
• Salt and pepper: To taste, and taste at the end rather than the start.
• Fresh cilantro (½ cup, chopped): In at the very end, off the heat. Cooked cilantro loses everything that makes it worth having.
• Lime (juice of 1): Also at the end. This is the ingredient that makes people ask what’s in it. Don’t skip it.
• For serving: Sour cream, extra cilantro, avocado, lime wedges.

Soften the vegetables: Heat the 2 tablespoons olive oil in a 6 quart Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the diced onion and red bell pepper and cook 5 minutes or so, until they’ve softened and the onion has gone translucent.

Add the garlic and spices: Stir in the 3 cloves minced garlic, 2 teaspoons cumin and 1 teaspoon chili powder. Cook about 1 minute, just until you can smell them properly. The spices hitting the hot oil is doing real work here, so don’t rush past it.

Beans and broth: Add the drained black beans and the 4 cups vegetable broth. Bring it up to a simmer, then let it go for 15 minutes with the lid off.

Blend half of it: Take the pot off the heat. Put an immersion blender in and blend roughly half the soup, moving around the pot rather than parking in one spot. Stop while there are still plenty of whole beans in there.

Finish it: Stir in the ½ cup chopped cilantro and the juice of 1 lime. Taste, and season with salt and pepper now that everything else is in.

Serve: Into bowls, with sour cream, avocado, more cilantro and a lime wedge on the side.

• Rinse the beans properly. Until the water runs clear. The canning liquid is starchy and salty and will throw off both the texture and your seasoning.
• Season at the end. With 4 cans of beans and 4 cups of broth, adding salt early means guessing. Taste once it’s blended.
• The lime is not a garnish. It’s the thing that lifts the whole pot. Juice it straight in.
• It thickens as it sits. If you’re not serving right away, hold back a splash of broth to loosen it later.
• Leave the lid off while it simmers. You want some of that liquid to cook down, not condense back in.

• Spicy: Add 1 or 2 chopped chipotle peppers in adobo along with the garlic, plus a spoonful of the sauce. Smoky as well as hot, which suits this soup better than straight heat. A diced jalapeño with the onion works too.
• Cuban style: Cuban black bean soup goes a different direction and it’s worth trying. Swap the red pepper for green, add 1 teaspoon dried oregano and 2 bay leaves with the spices, and finish with a tablespoon of red wine vinegar instead of the lime. Serve it over white rice rather than on its own. Worth saying this is a variation I’d take it toward rather than the way I usually make it.
• Meaty: Brown 1 pound of chorizo or ground beef first, set it aside, and stir it back in at the end.
• Toppings that earn their place: Avocado, sour cream or Greek yogurt, pickled red onion, crumbled queso fresco, crushed tortilla chips, a fried egg on top if it’s that kind of day.

Cornbread, obviously. Warm flour tortillas for dunking. Rice stirred right into the bowl if you want to stretch it further.

For something on the side, keep it sharp to cut through all that richness. A simple cabbage slaw with lime, or sliced avocado with salt and a squeeze of lime. Quesadillas turn it into a proper dinner.

This is better on day 2, which makes it an excellent thing to cook on a Sunday.

It keeps in an airtight container in the fridge for 5 days. It will thicken considerably, so loosen it with a splash of broth or water when you reheat.

It freezes beautifully for up to 3 months. Freeze it in portions so you can take out 1 without excavating a block. Thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat gently on the stove, adding liquid to get it back to the consistency you want.

Freeze the soup only. Cilantro, lime and toppings go on fresh.