Black Bean Soup
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You can have this warming, veggie-rich black bean soup ready in 30 minutes.
Made entirely from pantry and fridge staples, this Southwestern black bean soup is quick, easy, and handy to have in your recipe box. One reader who made the soup described it best: “So easy, so creamy, so comforting, so delicious. I always have the ingredients in my pantry so it’s a super-easy (and healthy) solution when I forget to plan dinner ahead…Seriously, people. It’s the least stressful homemade soup you will ever make. Thirty minutes from opening the cabinet door to table. And that is a winner in my book after a long day.”
I use lots of vegetables, like onions, garlic, and carrots, as well as warm spices to give the soup many layers of flavor. You don’t have to worry about finely chopping the vegetables since they all get puréed anyway — just give everything a rough chop and you’re good to go! Serve the soup with cornbread and quesadillas.
What you’ll need to make Black bean soup
Step-by-Step Instructions
To begin, cook the onions, garlic, and carrots in olive oil over medium heat until soft.
Add the beans and spices.
As well as the chicken broth.
Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes, until the vegetables and beans are very soft.
Purée the soup with a hand-held immersion blender. If you don’t have one, you can use a standard blender and work in batches. Just be sure to keep the hole in the lid open and cover it up with a dishtowel – this allows the steam to escape and avoids a hot soup explosion all over your kitchen.
Before serving, stir in some fresh lime juice to add a touch of brightness and wake up all the flavors.
Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with a dollop of sour cream. Finally, scatter some freshly chopped cilantro over top. You can get creative with additional garnishes. My husband loves to crush tortilla chips over his, and sometimes I’ll toss in some chunks of avocado. A spoonful of salsa would also be nice. Enjoy!
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Black Bean Soup
You can have this warming, veggie-rich black bean soup ready in 30 minutes.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 medium yellow onions, roughly chopped
- 4 large garlic cloves, crushed and peeled
- 2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
- 2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth (or vegetable broth for vegetarian option)
- ¾ teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1¾ teaspoons ground cumin
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Scant ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
- ⅓ cup sour cream
- Handful chopped fresh cilantro
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large soup pan. Add the onions, garlic cloves and carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are soft and translucent, about 8 minutes. Do not brown.
- Add the black beans, chicken broth, oregano, coriander, cumin, cayenne pepper and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer gently for about 15 minutes.
- Purée the soup using a hand-held immersion blender until very smooth and creamy. (Alternatively, you can use a standard blender to puree the soup in batches; see note.) Stir in the lime juice and season with salt and pepper to taste. Ladle the soup into bowls and top each bowl with a dollop of sour cream and freshly chopped cilantro.
- Note: If using a standard blender, purée the soup in batches, being careful not to fill the jar more than halfway. Be sure to leave the hole in the lid open and loosely cover with a dish towel to allow the heat to escape. Pour the blended soup into a clean pot.
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The soup can be frozen for up to 3 months. Defrost the soup in the refrigerator for 12 hours and then reheat it on the stovetop over medium heat until hot. (It may thicken up a bit while in the freezer; if so, just thin it out with a bit of water or broth while reheating.)
Pair with
Nutrition Information
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- Per serving (4 servings)
- Serving size: about 2 cups
- Calories: 475
- Fat: 14g
- Saturated fat: 4g
- Carbohydrates: 66g
- Sugar: 5g
- Fiber: 21g
- Protein: 27g
- Sodium: 424mg
- Cholesterol: 10mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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This was super easy and incredibly delicious! A true staple for winter season. Can’t wait to make again!
I made this recipe and added okra and jalapeño pepper over brown rice. It was delicious.
Little too thin so will reduce amount of chicken broth next time. Skipped the oil and sauteed veggies in chicken broth just to reduce the calories. The dollop of sour cream and lime really give it a nice finish. Thanks!
This soup is very tasty! I’ve made it several times. We love black bean soup! When I make this, I use 1 or 2 more cans of beans and less cayenne which suits our personal tastes better. I will say though, from start to finish, making this soup takes way more than 30 minutes.
This was just ok. I prefer black bean soup to be a little thicker/creamier. The taste overall was a bit bland as well.
This was ok, but took some work. Added 1 can fire roasted tomatoes, added one chipotle pepper in adobe sauce, added some left over cooked rice, topped with Tagin seasoning. Served with chicken quesadillas that were wonderful, as is.
Made this last night and everyone loved it. I will add some beans after the purée process just for some more texture. But the flavor was a hit! Served with pepper Jack cheese, pickled jalapeño quesadillas! Yum
Bad soup
I love this soup, but I found it to be thinner and lighter looking than your pictures.
I even added an extra can of beans!
Next time, I think I will only use 2-3 C of chicken broth and 3 cans of black beans.
The Best!!
Great easy soup from kitchen staples. Went together in a flash. After pureeing it was thinner than we like so I added another can of rinsed & drained beans. Also added a teaspoon of Trader Joe’s Chili Lime seasoning for a bit more zip. We like spice so next time I’ll add a chopped jalapeno chili. Thanks for another great recipe.
Not sure what I did wrong…followed directions and ingredients completely. This came out as a washed out version of bean/onion soup. This is the first of your recipes that didn’t turn out and that I really didn’t like at all. Oh well, can’t win them all.
This is a very flavorful soup recipe. Since the end result is pureed, I decided it should work well in my Vita-Mix. The Vita-Mix will puree and boil the soup. I put the rinsed beans in first, followed by the onions, peeled and quartered, and so on. I didn’t have any chicken broth so I used “Better Than Bouillion” and water. After it had reached nearly boiling in the Vita-Mix, I decided to shift the soup to a pot to cook on the stove.
When I tasted it, the flavor was good, but the texture seemed to have a bit of a chalky quality. I reviewed the recipe and realized that I had not used any oil because I wasn’t sauteing the veggies. I added oil to the soup. That helped but it still wasn’t exactly “on” for me. I let it simmer for a short while and added a bit of Johnny’s Seasoning Salt. I added a dollop of sour cream and a squeeze of lime when I ate it. It was excellent. I had no cilantro on hand but I’ll get some tomorrow before I serve it to my daughter. This soup is a KEEPER.
Winter is coming – I love soups, so I’m going to start looking for pureed soups that I can whip up quickly. You can get high-concentration of anti-oxidant veggies into these soups because of the pureeing. Stick blenders or Vita-Mix – I’m on it! 👍
Just had an elegant wine tasting in Calistoga. They served a puréed black bean soup and added bits of chorizo and toasted pepitas as garnish. Worked perfectly with this recipe. Another winner, Jenn! Thanks so much. 💞
Hi Jenn. We love all your recipes. Looking to buy a Dutch oven. Could you please share what make yours is? Thankyou!
Hi Dana, It’s a Le Creuset 5-1/2 quart. I love it and use it all the time.
So glad you like the recipes! This is the one I have and love it. It’s definitely an investment but will last forever.
Delicious 😋. I added some chopped spinach. You could probably sneak all kinds of veggies into this. Nutritious, and inexpensive, quick and tasty.
i used dry black beans and soaked them in red wine and water. The Lonestar recipe called for red wine, so this was already done as my beans were soaking when i scoured for good recipes. yum. I also started with a ham hock that was in the back of my freezer.
Yummy. I like my soup thicker so I added 1/2 a can of black beans after pureeing the rest. Also, used 1 jalapeño. Will make again… TY.
Just finished making this, put all of it through the blender, and tasted minus sour cream or any adornments – WONDERFUL flavor. Both my husband and I love it. Will have this for supper Monday along with your pumpkin-cornbread muffins and broccoli slaw – what a wonderful meal that will be. Thank you for a great recipe.
Absolutely delicious!!!!
Loved the flavor of this soup! First time making black bean soup so made it exactly as written in the recipe. Also made the pumpkin cornmeal muffins and they tasted great too! Both recipes are definite keepers!
love this soup;I was afraid the seasoning would be too much but it was perfect
I could never bring myself to try black bean soup because 1) I don’t love beans 2) It’s not very appealing to the eye. However, Aafter a recent individualized dietary study it seems as though my body processes beans very well. I immediately searched bean recipes on your site and found this. I made it exactly as written and it’s sooooo good and crazy easy (and fast) to make. The only ingredient I had to buy was cilantro. Thanks for another winner. 😊