Healthy, Cheap, Easy Black Bean Soup Recipe

This black bean soup recipe really checks all of the boxes – it is healthy, cheap, easy, filling, freezer friendly, gluten free, vegan, dairy free, full of vegetables, and packed with protein. It makes for a great healthy easy dinner or lunch that is not a sandwich. Black bean soup is one of my favorite meals to make in bulk. This recipe makes 8 meals in under 45 minutes. You can easily double it as well if you are looking to feed a crowd or really fill your freezer.

Black beans have been a staple in our home since I was in college. A go-to of ours was black beans and rice…or black beans and chicken and rice…or black bean and chicken burritos…or really any variation on any of those. Now, one of our favorite choices is black bean soup.

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One of the great things about black bean soup is that you can really make it up as you go. Each time that I make it, I do something a little different. I will also mix it up when it comes to serving. You can serve it over rice, dip tortilla chips, add in avocado, use it as a spread on tacos or burritos.

Now that I have written a hand full of lists about why I think this black bean soup is so great, let’s get to making it.

This is the list of ingredients that I used this time that I made the soup. Like I said, you can really mix it up and customize to your personal preferences. If you like spicy, you can add in extra hot peppers. If you prefer milder, skip the spicy peppers and add in some cilantro. I used jalapenos, chili peppers, and banana peppers fresh from our garden, and they turned out to be an awesome combination.

Ingredients:

3 cans of black beans (mostly drained)
2 cups broth of your choice
(I used chicken bouillon because it’s what I had. Vegetable stock also tastes great and makes your soup vegan.)
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 banana pepper
1 jalapeno
2 tiny chili peppers
1 red onion
2 cloves of garlic, minced (or 2-3 teaspoons)
½ tsp paprika
½ tsp black pepper
1-2 tbs seasoning salt
1-2 tbs olive oil

Directions:

1. Dice/chop all onions and peppers to desired fineness. This is the one step that will take you a while. I used this salsa maker to speed up the process.
2. Heat the olive oil in a saute pan over medium to high heat.
3. Add garlic to pan and saute for about 30 seconds before adding in the peppers and onions.
4. Saute all together, stirring frequently until peppers and onions are soft – about 7-8 minutes.
5. Heat broth in a large soup pan until lightly boiling.
6. Blend black beans in food processor until desired thickness. This will determine if your soup is chunky or smooth. You can also do this in the salsa maker to save on dishes. If you don’t have a food processor or salsa maker, the blender will work too – just add some of the broth before blending.
7. Once broth is boiling, peppers and onions are cooked, and beans are blended – add everything into the soup pan including your spices. Stir together and bring back to a boil.
8. Turn heat down to low, cover pan, and let simmer for 10-20 minutes stirring frequently.
9. Enjoy!!

Note – these instructions will get you a pretty thick soup with chunks of beans and veggies. If you want your soup to be liquid, just blend the broth with the cooked peppers and onions in your food processor before adding to the pan.

This soup will keep well in the fridge for a few days and is also great to put in the freezer. I usually freeze individual baggies of soup so that I can just pull them out in the morning for a quick, healthy lunch at work.

 

I mentioned in the directions that I used this salsa maker to speed up this recipe. I LOVE this thing. We use it to make salsa obviously, but it is my go to for chopping up veggies for all of my cooking. It is so much quicker and easier than chopping veggies by hand. You can get it on Amazon for $12.99, so it is definitely worth the investment.