Vegetarian Black Bean Soup

As much as black beans are a staple in my house, I've never made a black bean soup before. Most recipes I've come across don't appeal to me. Usually, they contains pork products- ham, in some form, or at the very least, bacon. (I really don't care for the flavor of ham, and I save my bacon consumption for a perfect BLT about once a year.) When I saw a pork-free black bean soup on Cate's World Kitchen, I was eager to give it a try.

I will admit that once making this, I began to question it's simplicity. There are only a few vegetables and only 3 spices. I had to resist tossing in a bunch of additional ingredients. It wasn't easy, but so far I've never been steered wrong by any of the recipes on Cate's blog. Other than some tinkering of quantities, my only real change was using vegetable broth in lieu of water. That, and instead of finely chopping my vegetables, I just tossed them into the food processor to make this already easy to make soup even easier. It was wonderful- full of flavor and a perfect fit for the healthier food we all seem to be craving this week.

Vegetarian Black Bean Soup
adapted from Veggie Belly via Cate's World Kitchen
serves 3-4

1/2 of a medium white onion, cut into chunks
3 small carrots, cut into chunks
1/2 of a large green pepper, cut into chunks
3 fat cloves garlic, minced
2 (15.25 oz) cans of black beans, rinsed and drained
3 cups vegetable broth
1 tbsp cumin
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
kosher salt, to taste
to serve: diced tomato, sliced green onion or chopped red onion, light sour cream/Greek yogurt, etc.

Place onion, carrots and green pepper in the bowl of a food processor, and process until minced. (Alternately, you could finely chop the vegetables by hand.)

Heat oil in a Dutch Oven or large stock pot over medium. Add minced vegetable mixture and cook for 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 2 more minutes.

Add beans, broth, spices and a couple pinches of salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 25-30 minutes, or until soup has thickened. Taste and adjust salt, if needed. Garnish as desired.