Black Bean Soup with Bacon
I was in the mood for soup today so I went in search of what was in my refrigerator. I decided to keep it simple and make a black bean soup. I usually toss in some chorizo but I didn’t have any so I decided to use bacon instead. I also added sweet potato, red pepper, onion, carrot, and celery to make it extra hearty and flavorful. After the soup simmered for a couple of hours, I blended most of it up with my immersion blender then ladled it into serving bowls. I topped each bowl with cilantro, green onion, avocado, cotija cheese, sour cream, and diced tomato. It was extremely flavorful and utterly delicious. My kids ate every last drop of their soup and my husband & I both loved it and look forward to the leftovers tomorrow for lunch.
How to Make Black Bean Soup with Bacon
Place a large Dutch oven on the stove and heat up over medium heat. Add the bacon slices and cook, until its golden brown; remove and place on a paper towel; crumble into bits.
Wipe out all but 1-2 teaspoons of bacon grease. Add the sweet potato, red pepper, onion, carrot, and celery to the Dutch oven and cook until softened, about 5-7 minutes.
Add the minced garlic, cumin, chile powder, oregano, sea salt, and freshly cracked pepper, to taste; cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Add the drained & rinsed black beans, chicken broth, bacon bits, lime juice, bay leaf, and molasses. Cover and simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
Remove the bay leaf from the pot of soup then blend with an immersion blender for a minute or so. Taste and re-season if needed. Ladle soup into bowls then top each bowl of soup with fresh cilantro, green onion, avocado, cotija cheese, sour cream, and diced tomato. Serve & enjoy.
Equipment
Ingredients
Soup:
- 5 slices of bacon cooked & crumbled
- 1 small sweet potato peeled & diced small
- ½ red bell pepper diced small
- ½ sweet yellow onion diced small
- 1 carrot peeled and diced small
- 1 stalk of celery diced small
- 5 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1 tsp chile powder
- ½ tsp oregano
- Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste
- 3 15 oz cans of black beans rinsed & drained
- 4 cups of chicken broth
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp molasses
Toppings:
- Fresh cilantro chopped
- Green onions chopped
- Avocado diced
- Cotija cheese crumbled
- Sour Cream
- Grape tomatoes diced
Instructions
- Place a large Dutch oven on the stove and heat up over medium heat. Add the bacon slices and cook, until its golden brown; remove and place on a paper towel; crumble into bits.
- Wipe out all but 1-2 teaspoons of bacon grease. Add the sweet potato, red pepper, onion, carrot, and celery to the Dutch oven and cook until softened, about 5-7 minutes.
- Add the minced garlic, cumin, chile powder, oregano, sea salt, and freshly cracked pepper, to taste; cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Add the drained & rinsed black beans, chicken broth, bacon bits, lime juice, bay leaf, and molasses. Cover and simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
- Remove the bay leaf from the pot of soup then blend with an immersion blender for a minute or so. Taste and re-season if needed.
- Ladle soup into bowls then top each bowl of soup with fresh cilantro, green onion, avocado, cotija cheese, sour cream, and diced tomato. Serve & enjoy.
Giveaway Winner:
The winner of the MyRecipes America’s Favorite Food cookbook is comment number 124:
Angelina — December 8, 2012, @ 6:00 am: My birthday is on the 9th!!! This would be an awesome b-day gift.
Happy birthday, Angelina – you won! Please e-mail me your mailing address at [email protected] so I can send the cookbook to you as soon as possible.
Look delicious Pam!
I’ve never had a black bean soup before but that really has to change! I have to make this soon – I love how its chockfull of veggies!
Bay leaves are one of those interesting ingredients that add a little something to the flavor of a dish, but it’s hard to describe. Great in soups and stews!
YUM!I love it when you invent recipes based on what you have in your fridge, Pam!
Congratulations to Angelina on winning the cookbook!
The soup sounds yummy! Congratulations and Happy Birthday Angelina! 🙂
Pam, All of your soups look really delicious.
This soup looks great….love all the ingredients Pam!
I love all the additions in this black bean soup. So hearty!
You know that I love this. You have me wanting to make some jerk chicken too, because this would rock with some shredded jerk in there too.
black bean soup is a hit with me every time–for some reason, black beans are my favorite bean for soup! nice touch with the bacon, obviously. 🙂
I love how this is a clean-out-the-fridge soup! I need to start making more of those myself.
Congratulations to Angelina and belated happy birthday too.
This soup is awesome! Interesting mix of veggie soup and bacon.
I could use a bowl of this soup right now, so cold where I live. Your soup looks hearty and delicious.
Congratulations, Angelina!
The soup looks super!
Not only does the soup look good, it is great! I just made it and I want the whole pot!
The extra’s at the end (cilantro, sour cream, cotija cheese, and avocado) make it just perfect. This is indeed a keeper.
Made this for a second time this evening and really liked it. Didn’t care for it the first time I made it. Tweeked it this time and it really came together for me. Family loved it. Omitted the bacon and 1 can of black beans (used only 2 cans) but left the rest exactly as it was. Used avocado, a small dice plum tomato, cilantro and Cotija cheese for garnish. A keeper.
oh, that looks good!. I love all the veggies–I always load my soups up–well, just about everything I cook, with extra veggies. not sure i’d blend it up, but it just seems like the perfect soup. thanks for sharing and have a great day
So yummy, and my kids ate it too!
We ate it with a hard boiled egg. It was similar to black soup we ate in Costa Rica !
Made this soup earlier this week – it’s very good! I did’t realize I was almost out of cumin so I only had about a half tablespoon, but it’s still got a nice kick. Also, I don’t have an immersion blender, so I ran most of the soup through my regular blender, which made it very thick, so I ended up adding some liquid. Next time, I’ll only blend about half of it. But it’s definitely worth making again!
This soup was fantastic! I followed the directions exactly and we loved it, especially the sweet potatoes. Thanks for sharing!