On Friday night, the one thing that no Minnesotan wants to happen to them in the dead of winter, happened to us. We returned home from dinner at one of our new favorite restaurants when we realized our apartment wasn’t very warm. This isn’t particularly surprising, since we usually keep the temperature a balmy 63 degrees, but it definitely felt a bit chillier than usual. We checked the thermostat and although we had it set at 63 degrees, it was only 55 degrees. Hmm, well that’s strange.
After a little investigating, we came to the conclusion that *gasp* our heater was broken. In the middle of February. In Minnesota. The low on Friday night was something like -2 degrees. We didn’t want to bother our landlord late at night so we turned on the space heater, cuddled up in bed, and hoped that maybe the heater would be on in the morning. Ha. Not the case. Luckily, after a call to our landlord, the heater was fixed a few hours later but it was a chilly wait!
Since nothing makes me crave soup more than cold weather, it seemed fitting to make soup this weekend. This soup definitely did the job of warming me up. This vegetarian soup is full of flavor, healthy, and if you like things spicy, you can increase the spiciness to your liking with the peppers and spices. I also used an immersion blender to puree a little of the soup, making it a bit thicker, but still keeping most of the beans. I topped mine with plain Greek yogurt, but I think avocado slices or tortilla strips would work well too!
Ingredients
- 1 lb dried black beans
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 1 can fire roasted tomatoes
- 1 white onion, diced
- 1 red pepper, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1-2 jalapenos, diced (depending on how spicy you like it)
- 1 1/2 tbsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (can adjust to increase spiciness)
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 2 cups water
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
- sour cream or plain Greek yogurt, for topping
Directions
- Rinse black beans in colander then soak in water in large bowl overnight, or 8-10 hours.
- After soaking, rinse beans again in colander.
- Place beans in slow cooker, along with chopped onion, carrots, tomatoes, onion, red pepper, garlic, jalapenos, cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, vegetable broth, and water.
- Turn slow cooker on high and cook for 6 hours.
- Using an immersion blender, pulse soup 5-6 times until desired consistency.
- If you don't have an immersion blender, you can remove about 2 cups of the soup and puree in blender, then return to slow cooker.
- Stir in cilantro, and season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve topped with sour cream or Greek yogurt.
- Enjoy!
recipe adapted from Ambitious Kitchen
greensnchocolate
greensnchocolate
greensnchocolate
Oh no!!! our heater has gone out in the dead of winter too. Major bummer. This soup sounds like the perfect way to warm up!
Meep, that sounds not fun at all! Glad to hear it was fixed (somewhat quickly)!
Also, this soup looks deeelicious. I could definitely use a bowl to warm up with
I LOVE black bean soup. I definitely want to make this! Thank God they fixed your heater quickly!
this soup looks delicious. i am a minneotan now too. my hubby and i moved here in july for him to go to law school. so far so good. 63 is COLD! i think i have all these ingredients and will be making this soup very soon!
Yay for a fellow Minnesotan! I’m a transplant too because of my husband