Black Bean Soup

My husband and I love Mexican and Spanish food.  There is this great burrito Bar by us called "Salsa Salsa",  we go there a lot.  When we go I always order the Black Bean soup...it is so good!

I woke up the other day in the mood for Salsa Salsa's Black Bean soup.  We had a busy day ahead of us and certainly no time to go out to eat.
I decided to make my own version of Salsa Salsa's Black Bean soup...secretly hoping it would be as good if not better...hehe!

Here is what you'll need:

I made a lot of soup with the goal to freeze half.  If you are going to make this and do not want a large amount just cut the recipe in half.

• 2 bags dried black beans
• 2 Jalapenos seeded and minced
• 5 cups chicken stock
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 lime. juiced
• 1 clove elephant garlic, minced (or 4 cloves regular garlic)
• 1 large red onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• 2 tsp ground cumin, I added some more at the end, to taste
• 2 tsp chili powder, I ended up adding a bit more towards the end
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tbsp oregano
• garlic powder, for the end
• onion powder, for the end

Boil 5 Cups of water.  Add the two packages of dried black beans to a strainer and wash the beans. Pick through the beans and discard any beans that don't look right.

Once the water is boiling add the beans to the boiling water and let boil for 5 minutes.  Now shut the flame off, cover the pot and let the beans soak for 1 hour.

Once the beans have soaked. Heat some olive oil in a soup pot and add the chopped red onion and saute for 5 mins. 

Then add the garlic and the jalapeno peppers.  Saute for another minute or two and add the cumin, chili powder, oregano, salt and pepper.

Now add the chicken stock and the beans and bring to a boil.

Add the parsley and the cilantro and allow the soup to simmer for a few hours.

When the beans are nice and tender you can take the soup off the heat.  Now its time to blend the soup.  

You can use a regular blender or a hand held blender.  This hand held blender is a great little gadget that makes life very easy and a lot less messy. 

Look at that!  Now that is a beautiful creamy soup.  

Once finished you can place it back on the heat and bring back to a simmer.  

If you feel the soup is too thick just add some extra chicken stock!

This is the point where I started to taste the soup and thought it was a little bland.  So I started to add some cumin, some salt, some pepper and finally some onion and garlic powder.  This is really up to you and what your palate says! 

 Just listen to your taste buds...they will talk to you....trust me!

I love to garnish my soups.  

For this soup I had sour cream, chopped cilantro, lime wedges and chopped red onion.

There you have Black Bean Soup!

Serve with some warm bread or tortilla chips!