This nutritious black bean soup has all the fresh vegetables of a salad with the warmth and comfort of a bowl of soup and is delicious too!
Well, after three weeks of posting other people’s recipes, I’m back with one of my own. It was a lot of fun cooking dishes that had already gone through the testing process and learning more about cooking in general (and slow-cooking in particular) from three expert cooks. In the process of posting the reviews and reading your feedback, I learned some very surprising things, not just of the cooking variety (like baby limas taste great in guacamole–who knew?!), but about you, the readers of this blog.
My last review, of Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s The 30-Day Vegan Challenge, was especially enlightening because I had no idea that so many near-vegans, non-vegans, and not-even-close-to-vegans were reading my blog. I’m thrilled to have you here!
Wherever you are in your eating choices, whether you feel you’re on a path toward veganism or are simply trying to eat fewer animal products, I’m glad you’re interested in vegan cooking and I’m happy that you’ve chosen to get your recipes from this site. It makes me think I should do some “Vegan 101“-type posts. Anyone interested? (I’m considering one called “WTF is Nutritional Yeast?” which is a comment I received on Facebook recently.)
On to the recipe: Fall is finally starting to arrive here in the South, or maybe it’s just the idea of fall that comes when you look at October on your calendar and see in your mind’s eye yellow leaves whirling in a chilly breeze and, if your mind’s eye somehow has the sense of smell, the distant aroma of chimney smoke.
Though there’s been none of that here in Mississippi (the first truly chilly temps are supposed to arrive tonight), I’ve been content to imagine that it’s fall and to eat accordingly. Suddenly the huge salads I’d been eating for lunch are just not appetizing, and though it could be 85 degrees at noon, I’ve been drawn toward soups.
With this black bean soup, I’ve tried to combine the best of both worlds–all the fresh vegetables of a salad with the warmth and comfort of a bowl of soup. I’ve even added chopped lettuce at the end so that it’s close to salad in a soup. It’s a great one-pot meal (if you eat two bowls of it) that contains the colors of fall.
Eat the Rainbow Black Bean Soup
Ingredients
- 1 large onion chopped
- 1 jalapeno chile stemmed, chopped , seeded and finely diced (add more or less to taste)
- 1 yellow or red bell pepper chopped
- 2 medium carrots diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 small red cabbage or 1/2 large cabbage, chopped
- 6 ounces mushrooms quartered
- 2 cans cooked black beans or 3 cups, rinsed and drained
- 1 tablespoon Mexican oregano or regular oregano
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4-1/2 teaspoon chipotle chile powder or for smokiness without heat use smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon regular chili powder
- generous grating of black pepper
- 1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
- 5 cups vegetable broth (or water plus 2 servings bouillon)
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 4 cups chopped lettuce or spinach
- salt to taste optional
Instructions
- In a large pot or pressure cooker, saute the onions until they soften. Add the peppers and carrots and cook for another two minutes. Add the garlic and remaining vegetables and cook for another two minutes.
- For regular cooking: Add all remaining ingredients EXCEPT lettuce and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook, covered, for about 30 minutes, adding additional water or vegetable broth as needed to keep a soupy consistency. Just before serving, stir in the lettuce and salt.
- For pressure cooking: Add all remaining ingredients EXCEPT lettuce and salt. Lock the lid in place and bring to high pressure. Cook at high pressure for 6 minutes, remove from heat, and allow pressure to come down naturally. (If pressure is not down after 15 minutes, use a quick-release method.) Just before serving, stir in the lettuce and salt.
- For slow cooking: Place sauteed vegetables and all remaining ingredients EXCEPT lettuce and salt into slow cooker. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4-6 hours. Just before serving, stir in the lettuce and salt and add additional seasonings, if necessary.
Notes
Nutritional info is approximate.
Suzi
Beautiful soup! Black Bean soups are my favourites, and I’ve cooked dozens of variations, no exaggeration. 🙂
Nicole
That’s funny you mention WTF is nutritional yeast because I just bought some and was wondering the same thing! 🙂 I think Vegan 101 would be great!
Nicole
You can totally count me in on Vegan 101!!
I found out what nutritional yeast was once……lol Couldn’t tell you what it was that I put it in, but I know I still have a big ol container of it in with the rest of my spices!
I’ve recently started “Meatless Mondays” in my house of omnivores….as an opener to healthy eating. (again….) I fail alot. But I get up and try again!
Katie L.
Education is always great. I like the idea of Vegan 101. I would love this refresher about ingredients and cooking techniques. I’m sure there is lots I could still learn. Also, thank you for posting multiple ways of cooking a recipe–stovetop, pressure cooker, slow cooker. Keeps me from guessing when I need the flexibility in my life.
Rebecca R.
I’d love to see a vegan 101 post! I’m vegan at home and vegetarian everywhere else but I’d love to have some info/tips from a more seasoned vegan!
Mia J
Yaaay! Another soup recipe! I cook a big batch of veggie soup every week, and I’ve tried quite a few from your site, all delicious… your North African Chickpea and Kale and Rustic Red Kale and White Bean Soup are my favorite! I’ll be cooking this black bean soup for next week for sure. Being a close-to-vegan, I’d love some vegan 101.. the more I learn the more I am converted 🙂
Kirsten
I’ll definitely try this recipe. I never thought of putting lettuce in soup!
I’m curious about what YOU do with nutritional yeast, because the one and only thing I’ve ever cooked that I found inedible was a mac and “cheese” with nutritional-yeast-based sauce. I think some foods just aren’t meant to be made vegan. I did find NY tasty when sprinkled over vegan pizza.
For your demographic research, I’m ovo-lacto vegatarian, but cook a lot of vegan meals. I usually use dairy more as a condiment.
JT
Then you haven’t tried my vegan Macaroni No Cheese. Blend about 4 cups roasted, chopped butternut or acorn squash with 2-3 T white miso and 2-3 T tahini, plus salt to taste. Pour it over cooked macaroni, toss, and bake at 375 for 30 minutes or so. I top it with fried onions at the end. You can add onions and other veggies too. I like pouring in some frozen peas. Can’t wait for fall every year just so I can make this. YUM.
JT
Should have made clear that’s blend in a blender or food processor, until smooth.
Marian Hamilton
This soup sounds DELISH! I’m glad I saved my cooked black beans (& hadn’t yet used them for one of the other soup recipes you’ve posted) so I can make YOUR soup recipe! Can’t wait to see the greens get soaked up as I serve the soup.
Vegan 101 sounds like a super idea! All I know about nutritional yeast is that it gets added to recipes when you want the taste of cheese, but don’t know anything else about it. BRING IT ON, Susan! You will be a fantastic teacher of all things vegan!
Fall is sorta in the air here in central Calif., but the temps are only down to mid-50s at night….. still making soup tho!! 🙂
Cate
Yes, please about the nutritional yeast. I’ve been curious what the heck you’re supposed to do with that for quite a while now.
carrotstixx
This soup sounds fantastic…re: “Vegan 101” sign me up!
Val
The soup looks yummy!!!
I was just thinking the other day that I should make black bean soup soon and here is your post! I’ll have to give your recipe a try, thank you for sharing!
As to the “WTF is Nutritional Yeast?”, I can’t believe someone seriously said ‘WTF’ to you! Wow!.. Good thing you seem to take it in a relaxed way! 😉 (It must the the German in me still flinching [even after 11 years of marriage to my American husband] when someone says the F-word like this..)
That being said though, a Vegan 101 sounds great! Make sure to include ‘Nooch’ when you’re at nutritional yeast as it took me quite a while to figure that out when I became veg myself! LOL
Karen
This sounds delicious! I am definitely going to make this tomorrow and it should provide lunches for me all week! I began eating mostly (better than 95%) vegan about two months ago and love all the new recipes I have found, especially from this site! And I love your idea of Vegan 101 posts! I, too, would like to know WTF nutritional yeast is! LOL
kasia
I’d love some back to basics Vegan 101 stuff. I try to be vegetarian now, boyfriend is a meat eater who freaks out at the “fake” ground beef and stuff, and I am already struggling to maintain protein and iron levels so basics would be awesome.
Tara
I just love this blog. I’m not 100% vegan….but eat vegan a lot….more often then not. Love what you write about and your sense of humor. Would love to hear about the post on nutritional yeast. That stuff rocks…..and many people don’t know how awesome it is.
Thanks~
Tara
Janet
Sounds yummy. I love the catchy title. It is funny, sometimes my husband will say, “what is this called”…I’ll have to answer something like “chickpeas and kale”….
Descriptive names are great, but catchy names are fun.
Victoria
The black is my favorite bean!! So rich in flavor. I look forward to trying this recipe. Yes, Vegan 101 sounds wonderful. I have a jar of nutritional yeast, because my vegan son has recommended it and it was an ingredient in a recipe I wanted to try. By the time I got the yeast I had forgotten what I was going to use it for. So, WTF do you do with nutritional yeast, anyway?? 😉 I recently accidentally made Kale chips, then found out from my son that Kale chips is a real thing. I trimmed the leafy part of the kale from the stems into 2-3″ pieces, coated them with EVOO, salt and pepper, and baked them on a cookie sheet @300 for 20-30 min until they were deyhdrated and crispy. OMG, what a fabulous way to eat your green leafies!! They were deeelish!! Kind of labor intensive, though, since they shrink so much.
Jodie Rozzell
Vegan 101 posts would be excellent! I’m not vegan or even vegetarian, but I rarely cook with meat at home. I find it’s just too much trouble for a single person. I really enjoy reading your recipes and would love to learn more about nutritional yeast, TVP, etc.
Jenny
I’m an already-vegan reader, but I am not at all surprised that you have such a diverse audience. Even though the title of the blog sounds very niche, yours are actually my go-to recipes when I cook for omnivores. Your lasagna, pinto bean chili, easy vegetable soup, Ethiopian red lentil soup, and others have all been well received several times over. I think it’s because you strike a perfect balance between the new and the familiar. And you are so respectful of everyone’s food choices. So this is just to say thanks for being awesome 🙂 Looking forward to trying this new soup, too!
Kathy
I think Vegan 101 would be great! There is always something coming up that I have no idea what to do with. Where do I sign up? =)
Barbara
Wow! This is a beautiful photo of a beautiful soup and I can’t wait to try it. I live in northern CA and we’ve had one day of rain in months and our temps are still in the 80s for this week, anyway. I’ve been harvesting, canning, and freezing since mid August because my 1.2 acres of veggie/flower gardens really liked whatever I did for them this year. I have the first 6 ingredients for the soup in the garden, plus tomatoes and rows and rows of chard and 3 kinds of kale and collards. (Yes, I’m retired.) Re: Vegan 101: we can always use your beans of wisdom. If we know something already, you confirm it. If we don’t know it, we learn! Thanks, Susan for your inspiration.
danielle
I would love vegan 101! And also an option on your website for a “print friendly” page to print out the recipes to add to my collection 🙂
SusanV
Danielle, almost all of my recipes do have a print-friendly page. If you see one without it, let me know and I will add it.
Dennis Smith
Vegan 101 is a great idea!
Christy
I would love to read a vegan 101
Yolanda
I would like some Vegan 101 sprinkled in with various posts… especially for things that are especially vegan items (nutritional yeast). I’m also with ya in yearning for fall… I am so excited that our South Tx highs will be down in the 80s and our lows will be in the 60s – woo hoo… soup is sounding better and better.
Sara
I’m one of your readers that isn’t even close to vegan. I enjoy your site (and other vegetarian/vegan cookbooks and blogs) because the recipes really make vegetables (and fruit) shine. I also like the low-fat concept. For my non-vegan household, your recipes make great sides, lunches, and (sometimes) meals. I’d be interested in reading some vegan 101 posts, for sure.
Cas
101! Yes please. 🙂
My son has been a vegetarian for a few months and recently I happened to pick up one of his books, read it and was totally shocked. So of course I became a vegetarian and had been for two weeks and then on Monday we both decided to become vegan. Onto day 3. Thank goodness for the many blogs like yours on the net. I have cooked a couple of very tasty dishes. Last night I cooked a lasagne with tofu that the whole family enjoyed.
Anyway, nutritional yeast, I finally found someone in Oz that supplies it, ordered it on line, it arrived last week and immediately I thought WTF…fish food! LOL As a beginner to vegan eating I would love a 101. Thanks for all of your fabulous recipes.
Cheers,
Cas
Yadsia @ShopCookMake
I’m a vegetarian struggling to go Vegan (I love Eggs). I’d love to read some Vegan 101 posts from you!
Erin
That sounds fantastic… I was feeling like making a home made slow cooking soup this week……. and this is the one! Thanks. : )
Jennifer
I like the idea of a Vegan 101, expecially since many people’s fear of vegan is that they think they cannot get complete protein and nutrition without eating meat. I doubt I’ll ever convince my husband to go vegan and I’m not sure I’ll be able to give up my dairy myself, but I am trying to lean in that direction since vegan is definitely the direction to go, from a health and sustainability (and some would argue moral) standpoint. Most people don’t even realize that food CAN be good without animal products. For instance, my first revelation was that you can bake a cake without eggs! Who knew?
Adrienne
I would LOVE some vegan 101 posts! We are new to the lifestyle/diet, and trying to find our way. I do like everything I’ve tried this far…the yellow split pita soup is on tap for dinner. I also enjoy hearing about your daughter’s reactions to foods. We got into a vegan diet wanting to be as healthy as we could for our children, and to leave them as healthy an earth as we could, but they are somewhat reluctant participants in the endeavor!
urbanvegan
This looks so comforting. Congrats on your Veg News award! You deserve it!
Amy
While I’m not vegan, nutritional yeast is the BEST thing I’ve gotten from reading vegan blogs! It is certainly a kitchen staple now with it’s own space among alternative grains and other goodies I buy in bulk and became more familiar with through reading vegan blogs. (Avocado-Chocolate pudding is another wonderful concept I picked up from vegan blogs – especially great with lower fat, less strongly flavored FL Avocados, and a neighbor with a tree of them!). Chia seeds, homemade nut/soy milks, and sea weeds are other wonderful newish kitchen staples/ideas gleaned from reading vegan blogs.
judy detty
Dear Susan, I also want to know what NUTRITIONAL YEAST is also. I was at the store yesterday and was looking to buy some, but there were several types : dry baking , active , etc .none had the word nutritional on it so I did not buy any ?? I went to your face book site and went thru several comments but did not find the one that askes that question. so help. thanks
SusanV
Judy, nutritional yeast is different from active dry and baking yeasts, which are used in small amounts to make bread rise. Nutritional yeast is used for it’s cheesy/savory flavor and doesn’t make things rise. It’s usually sold in yellow flakes–someone above said it looks like fish food–and you probably won’t be able to find it in a regular grocery store unless it stocks a large selection of natural foods. Go to a natural food store and ask someone there for Red Star or Vegetarian Support Formula nutritional yeast. Those names ensure that you’re getting the right product, one that supplies vitamin B12, an important nutrient especially if you’re vegan or over 50.
Torry Beaven
We are also lacto-ovo vegetarian, but are incorporating more vegan meals into our lifestyle. While the push for the rest of the country is to go vegetarian one night a week, we are doing vegan one night a week. Perhaps more as we find yummy recipes! Thanks for your blog. We love it!
Paula
I am so grateful that you have this site. I love the recipes and although I am not 100% vegan. I am more like a vegetarian who strives to be vegan. Your baked oatmeal recipe is one I come back to over and over. I usually cut mine into bars and bring to work. I would love to see more quick recipes for those work nights.
moonwatcher
Susan,
This sounds absolutely awesome, and love the title. I am making this as soon as I have eaten the other things I’ve made and have all the ingredients. Black beans are about the perfect food for me.
Thanks–
xo
moonwatcher
ps I laughed out loud at the question about nutritional yeast! I think your Vegan 101 posts are a great idea.
Hayley
Made the black bean soup for dinner tonight- yummy! I actually had 95% of the ingredients at home and needing to be used – including 1/4 a head of red cabbage- which I thought was a perfect sign to make this recipe tonight. I put 1/4 of an avocado on top and added turmeric. So delicious! I will be making this again for sure! A great way to use up vegetables.
Cheers!
Jennifer (Delicieux)
I LOVE the name of this recipe – eat the rainbow!!! Your soup looks fantastic, and so comforting. I love all those colours.
Kell
I’m an omnivore who loves your site. I’m always sharing things I learn with my vegetarian friends. Funny thing is I just told one yesterday about nutritional yeast. She didn’t know it before.
moonwatcher
PS: By the way, I laughed out loud at that question about nutritional yeast in self-recognition. That would have been ME, or some facsimile of me, years and years ago. When I first saw it in a recipe I had no idea what it was. Only I didn’t ask. I just wondered. . .and wondered. . . until, oh, about 7 years ago. So it was great to see someone asking, in a way that emphasized the mystification and made me laugh. 🙂
moonwatcher