Spicy Black Bean Soup

 I have a cold so I've been trying to get in as much soup as possible. I like it spicy to help get my nose running so I can clear it all out. I don't know if this helps, but I like it.

Last night I made Spicy Black Bean Soup, and as usual, I tweaked it a little, and it turned out great!

I got this recipe out of:

I love this cook book

 Spicy Black Bean Soup

1 tbsp. canola oil
1/2 c chopped spanish onion (Whatever that is. I used regular ol' yellow)
1 garlic clove, minced (I cheated and bought a jar of pre-minced garlic)
2 - 15oz cans of black beans drained and rinsed well
1 - 14.5oz can of diced tomatoes with juice
4 c veggie broth
1 Bay leaf
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 tbsp. fresh lime juice (Hah, yeah right like I have fresh limes. I didn't even have my usual bottle of lime juice, I guess I had one too many Fog Horns. So I put in a couple squirts of lemon juice.)
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/3 c vegan sour cream
1 c fresh chopped cilantro (I didn't have, so I used 1 tbsp dried parsley and added with other spices)

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and sauté onion and garlic until tender, about 1 to 2 minutes.  Stir in the beans, tomatoes, vegetable stock, bay leaf, cumin, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook, covered, for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove soup from the heat. Discard the bay leaf. Stir in the lime juice and cayenne. Serve immediately garnished with sour cream and cilantro.

So I thought this sounded good but that it could be better. Along with the onions and garlic I also added in a chopped green pepper. I also 'messed up' the recipe again because of not reading it carefully and added in the cayenne with all the other spices, but it still turned out great. I think it helps the flavor build so I'll still do it like that again. After that was all cooked up it was just very chunky stuff with broth... so I puréed half the soup to give the broth some body.

The soup turned out even better than I expected. I'm not a huge soup fan so trust me, if I put it in this blog it is worth making. This was delicious. The sour cream added, made me think: Mexican Borscht. It was very easy to make, which is great when you're sick because you don't want to slave over a stove. And the spice was perfect. Loved it!