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.
Maryna
October 19, 2011 at 1:38 amI love the idea of Vegan-101 posts, because I too said WTF is nutritional yeast. Living in South Africa makes it even more confusing because we have different names for almost everything!
My daughter (15) is the vegetarian and wanted to go vegan, which is when I discovered your site. She’s not completely vegan yet, but we use a lot of the recipies. Soon everyone will be vegetarian (baby steps) and then who knows, vegan!
We’re in summer now (yesterday was 28 degrees C) so will have to keep the soup recipe for next winter.
Ali
October 19, 2011 at 4:54 amThe soup looks so delicious, really love the photos. sign me up for ‘vegan 101’
Wendy (Healthy Girl)
October 19, 2011 at 5:21 amSusan, can you see my smile from ear to ear? That’s how much I am loving your WTF is . . . idea. Absolutely necessary and absolutely HILARIOUS. I know I am not supposed to curse according to the higher moral authority, but I do it all the time and don’t really want to stop. Someone needs to lock me up.
Arin
October 19, 2011 at 5:29 amI think “Vegan 101” would be a great idea! I am a fairly new vegetarian, 1 year in :0) but I have been trying to make mote vegan recipes and buy more vegan things, it’s really hard, alot of times I buy something thinking it’s vegan and I get home and it’s not :0( some days I will stand in the store and google on my phone trying to figure out if something is vegan or I just buy things that have vegan right on the package. So any tips and info I can get would be a great help :0)
And yea WTF is nutritional yeast and what do with it :0)
BTW I love your site. I really enjoy reading it and trying different recipes :0)
Any tips on how to trick my family of meat eaters to eat more meatless meals :0) my hubby always says the stuff I cook smells good but I cannot get him to try it :0(
Cindy
October 19, 2011 at 6:50 amCan’t wait to try your new recipe! Have a friend coming over to scrapbook on Sunday so I think this, along with some homemade croutons, will be our lunch. Wanted to also say I love the idea of “Vegan 101” and learning more about nutritional yeast. The only time I’ve tried it was in your fabulous zucchini basil soup (which we simply devoured for a late-summer dinner one night!) but other than that I’m a n-yeast novice. Would love to find out more about it and more ways to use it as it sounds beneficial to incorporate in a vegan diet. Thanks for your new recipe, and also the feature you did on Colleen Patrick Groudeau’s new book. Even though I left a comment on your post I ran over to our local bookstore and purchased it that same day, figured if I’d won I’d give my extra copy to a good friend. What a fantastic read and truly inspirational! 🙂
Katie
October 19, 2011 at 8:04 amI would definitely be interested in some Vegan 101 postings!
Shoreline
October 19, 2011 at 9:39 amHi Susan, We’re a family of 4 who eat plenty of vegan/vegetarian foods but are not vegans/vegetarians (purpose – healthier food with less impact on environment). Frankly, anyone asking ‘wtf is nutritional yeast’ is either saying they don’t know how to use google or is trying to incite a response. However, we’d love to see a series of articles going through basics – not to learn about basics, because I think we’ve been there – but to really go through them in depth, in the same way a famous chef (that would be you!) might cover ‘why chopping food to the proper size is important.’ In other words to go over the basics in an exceptionally learned way so that everybody gets something out of it. Thanks for blogging!
GetSkinnyGoVegan
October 19, 2011 at 11:02 amIt’s beautiful! ‘Tis the season for beans! If you have beans in your pantry, you are SET!
Kimberly
October 19, 2011 at 11:33 amCan’t wait to try this soup in the next few days! Looks great for fall.
Lindsey
October 19, 2011 at 11:47 amI would love to read some Vegan 101 posts! I just found your blog, and while I am not a vegan quite yet, I am working towards that. I would love to learn more!
Erika
October 19, 2011 at 3:30 pmas always your recipes look so delicious! Cant wait to make it! Thx for posting!
Kim
October 19, 2011 at 3:55 pmI need some vegan 101!
beth
October 19, 2011 at 11:41 pmPLEASE do a vegan 101 class! How fun!! : )
AikoVenus
October 20, 2011 at 8:06 amIt’s so beautiful! There’s nothing better than “eating the rainbow”. ^^
Sn
October 20, 2011 at 9:44 amPlease do vegan 101. Wtf is NY should be first! I love your site!
moonwatcher
October 20, 2011 at 11:15 amHi again Susan,
Well, I couldn’t wait any longer to make this, even though I didn’t have exactly everything on the ingredient list–that can of black beans in my pantry started to jiggle and say, “put me in that soup right now!” Well, not really. But I really wanted to make it because I feel so much better when I eat black beans. I didn’t have mushrooms, or two cans of beans, so I pretty much halved the recipe, and used a fresh ear of corn and some cubed up butternut squash I had to use up, along with the other ingredients. It changed the shades of the rainbow slightly, but worked fine. Scraped regular chili powder and ancho chili powder together for enough chili. Roasted and ground the cumin. I sauted everything, added the spices to that mixture, and then put it all in the slow cooker, my new fascination. Boy, did it smell good all day! This is a really wonderful soup, Susan. So healthy and delicious. I added the rest of a package of baby arugula I had for the lettuce. And cooked up a little quinoa and put a scoop of that in my soup bowl. Looking forward to my leftovers!!
Thanks so much,
xoxo
moonwatcher
Sherri Montgomery
October 20, 2011 at 8:05 pm“WTF is nutritional yeast”
This cracked me up, but I can totally recall being asked this on more than one occasion. The funniest is that my wife said about that to me and at first was totally anti-nutritional-yeast (“eeeeew” was about her response, after the “WTF”). Now she liberally coats popcorn with it, puts it in soup, and shakes it on her scrambles!
Lex
October 21, 2011 at 12:13 amthe broth looks so rich, practically like blood!
Dyan
October 21, 2011 at 9:11 pmThis soup is amazing. I added twice the tomatoes and some cooking liquid from a few dried chiles (a la your pinto bean chili), but otherwise this is the closest I’ve stuck to a recipe in ages. I’m glad I did, as the spices and flavors from the vegetables were perfect. I can see it working well with most any vegetable I need to use up. Thanks, as usual!
Bali Cooking class
October 22, 2011 at 7:13 amWe combined Black bean with young papaya fruit as our famous soup in Bali, fantastic taste…..
thnks
Weisserose
October 22, 2011 at 10:48 am…Yes, please, Vegan 101. Not a vegan household here – we eat vegetarian/vegan a lot because we just love it. Cooking vegetarian/vegan is so challenging – to me anyway! 🙂
Your Stormy Black Bean Soup is one of our “basic” soups. The Rainbow Black Bean Soup will be next…
Greetings from Germany 🙂
Michelle
October 22, 2011 at 3:49 pmI have never had lettuce in soup before. This looks really good- I will have to try it. Thanks for a great recipe 🙂
Marisa
October 23, 2011 at 4:13 pmSusan I just wanted to thank you SO much for your blog! I am a college student in my first apartment and a new vegan. Your blog has been SO HELPFUL! I have been eating healthfully and deliciously thanks to you! Can’t wait to finish my homework and start making this soup! All the best.
Marisa
October 23, 2011 at 4:14 pmForgot to mention also eating compassionately!!!
Melissa
October 23, 2011 at 4:56 pmJust FYI, your blog has been a life saver. I am following the Eat to Live/McDougall “lifestyle” and I have found your receipes brilliant as well as the lay out of your blog. It’s attractive and easy to navigate compared to other vegan sites. Keep it Up! This soup looks fab and I can’t wait to try it!
Kristi Rimkus
October 23, 2011 at 9:51 pmI love making soups like this. They freeze so well for lunch during the week, and still keep their hearty flavors.
Elaine
October 24, 2011 at 10:01 pmHi Susan
I’m a trying-to-be-vegan. I’m glad you invited vegan 101 questions. Mine is: What would you suggest for the vegan pantry? I understand, it’s a big question. It’s just that, I’m only getting started and I always find myself always having to run out for something (I understand if it’s fresh veggies) but there’s also things like spices, dried beans, whole grains, etc, that maybe I should have on hand.
Love, love, love your recipes. A few have become staples in my house, even beloved by my omni (and not planning to change) husband. What do YOU keep in your pantry?
Thanks,
Elaine
greene88
October 24, 2011 at 10:15 pmLooks delish! Recently started the eat to live plan so I am a sudden vegan and therefore hooked to your blog. A 101 would be great. Along the same lines, what do you use to saute when oil is off limits? Thanks!
Leotis
October 25, 2011 at 7:11 amThis soup was good. Without thinking I added cornstarch/water to thicken it and it still came out alright. Forgive me this was my first attempt at it. But I think this is going to be an awesome soup/stew.
Diane
October 26, 2011 at 11:52 amI made this soup and I must say it was way to bland for me. Just not enough depth of flavor and couldn’t taste the spices. I loved the ingrdients, so I added more cumin, and more chili powder and some balsamic vinegar to cut down the acid and to add some depth to the flavor. I also added salt. It turned out fantastic, to our taste, anyway. We ate it for nights, as it lasts a long time and it is just great. It couldn’t be healthier. All tastes are different and I find since we quit cooking with animal products and by products, I need to up the spices alot to give my food the kind of flavor we seem to like. It is a keeper.
Yolanda
October 26, 2011 at 4:19 pmI made the Eat the Rainbow Black Bean Soup – very good. I added 1 cup of frozen corn and because I did not have chipotle chile powder or smoked paprika – I added about an ounce of shaved dark chocolate (88%). It was well received. Thanks.
kellee
October 26, 2011 at 4:56 pmI just made the ‘eat-the-rainbow black bean soup’ and it was absolutely delicious! I love all the vegetables and spices in it. Thank you so much!
Janers5
October 26, 2011 at 7:39 pmJust found your site and I am enthralled! I literally want to make everything I see! This post is especially funny because I just was explaining to a coworker what nutritional yeast was and how delicious it could be! ( She thought it was just a health food item that smelled of feet!) Thank you so much for all your recipes, cant wait to try one of your delectable looking soups for dinner tonight! As a gluten free vegan I havent been so excited about a blog in awhile!!!
MeredithMorgan
October 30, 2011 at 6:34 pmSusan, I love your blog and always recommend it to my veg-curious friends. This soup was delicious! Great way of getting the awesome nutrients of purple cabbage. Not a regular on our menu, but it should be. Plus I used some of the last veggies from my own garden! My husband and I loved it.
Jan Shannon
November 9, 2011 at 5:28 pmWonderful soup! I have made it twice, it is very satisfing and hearty. This will be a staple soup for me!
NikiZ
November 10, 2011 at 6:15 pmI was just searching recipe online tht if i could make anything out of cabbage & beans mixing it together & i came across dis…thnk u so much for it..it came out simple,healthy & tasty!!! 🙂
Audrey
November 10, 2011 at 8:34 pmThank youuuuuuu in advance for any vegan 101 posts. I am one of the “not near but on the path to veganism” readers and sometimes I’m scared to ask obvious questions like the person on your Facebook did. This would be so wonderful!!
Shelbey
November 14, 2011 at 2:33 pmHi Susan,
Ever since I found your blog, your recipes have been a staple in my house. I love cooking healthy and would also enjoy vegan 101 tips.
This black bean soup is one of my favorite. The one thing I’d add is to watch your arms near the pressure cooker while sauteing. I burned my arm BAD the other day :/. But, even the burn won’t turn stop me from using one of my favorite kitchen accessories. .. I just love using my pressure cooker!!!!!
Thank you so much for your healthy, delicious recipes. If I had kids I would make my entire family eat like yours. You’re an inspiration.
Thanks again,
Shelbey