It’s Monday again! We had gorgeous Hong Kong “fall” weather here, but I saw some snow in the US, so I figured a slow cooker, smokey-from-chipotle black bean soup could be a good option for this week. I kind of have a feeling we may need some relatively hands off comfort food during what will most likely be a long week as we keep an eye on the US election.
This recipe is modified from Bon Appetit’s Basically Black Bean Soup, a recipe that looked delicious to me, but required WAY more hands on time than I was willing to spend. I love my slow cooker for making soups and beans, so I decided to try it for this!
There is a big controversy over soaking or not soaking your beans, but I am on team soak. It doesn’t take all that much to cover your beans with water and stick them in the fridge the night before, so I feel if there is any question that it makes the beans more tender or has other benefits, why not just do it? Many of us have beans in our pantry that we don’t remember when we purchased, so if you want dinner on the table the same day, I recommend soaking the beans to speed up the process a bit. Old beans will cook eventually, but it can take a LONG time!
While I highly recommend cooking the vegetables in the beginning as is called for in the recipe because it adds so much flavor, I admit that the last time I made this soup I was short on time and just threw everything in the slow cooker together and flipped the on switch. It was still very good. Not as nuanced in flavor, but sometimes you just need to get dinner prepped and move on to other things! One caveat is that slow cooker times are very hard to predict with this one. First, slow cookers are different. I have a “hot” slow cooker that is actually broken and stuck on high right now so things tend to be pretty quick for me. I adjusted the timing to what I thought it would be in a normal slow cooker. Second, the age of your beans really affects the cooking time. So my advice for this one is to start the soup early in the day the first time you make it. You can always turn the temperature to low or even warm if it cooks quickly, but you don’t want to be eating at 10 PM or ordering pizza if it doesn’t! The good thing is that soft beans are generally not a problem and actually preferred with black bean soup, so a bit of extra cook time is fine.
If your family is like mine and thinks that soup is not dinner, I recommend serving something with this. A salad or crudités platter are good, but my family seems to need carbs, and tortilla chips don’t cut it. My favorite is cornbread, and I served it the last time I made it with Monterey Jack and Jalapeño Cornbread from the Once Upon a Chef cookbook, which is one of my favorites! (Cookbook link: https://amzn.to/2HWJNeu.) I also have an easy Buttermilk Cornbread Recipe from my Mom below, which is the one I usually make. Quesadillas or grilled cheese sandwiches work as well.
Sorry that this is not the most attractive meal ever (hence the colorful garnishes), but I hope you will enjoy the flavor. The leftovers are fantastic for lunches, although I do usually add a bit of water when reheating since it does thicken up in the fridge. I actually think the leftovers are even better than the first day, as is often the case with soups and chilis.
Have a great week and see you next Monday!
Slow Cooker Chipotle Black Bean Soup
Ingredients
Soup
- 1 lb dried black beans soaked overnight in refrigerator
- 1 medium onion chopped (about 1 cup)
- 1-2 small to medium carrots diced (about 1 cup)
- 1 sweet red, yellow or orange bell pepper diced (about 1 cup)
- 3 garlic cloves smashed and roughly chopped
- 2 T extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup red wine vinegar
- 2 T chipotle chilies in adobo* with sauce chopped (or you can use 1-2T of hot sauce)
- 1 ½ tsp dried oregano
- ½ tsp cumin
- 1 ½ tsp Kosher salt
- 1 bay leaf
- 6 cups water
Toppings
- Lime wedges
- Avocado
- Sour cream or plain yogurt
- Chopped green onion
- Quartered cherry tomatoes
- Chopped cilantro
Instructions
- The night before: Place 1 lb of beans in a bowl and add enough water so that there is at least three inches above the beans. Don’t cheat on this. Really! The beans will absorb the water. Put the bowl in the refrigerator until ready to use.
- Chop the onions, carrots and peppers into similar sized pieces. Smash the whole garlic cloves with the flat side of a large knife. That should dislodge the skins so you can easily peel them off. If the pieces are very large, you can roughly chop them. Have the spices ready. Remove the beans from the fridge. Rinse, drain, and set aside.
- Heat the 2 T of olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, pepper and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are soft. This should take about 5-7 minutes. When the vegetables look about done, add the ½ tsp of cumin and cook until the aroma starts to come from it.
- Add the ¼ red wine vinegar to the vegetable mixture and stir, scraping the brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Cook until the vinegar is reduced to approximately half the beginning amount.
- Add the 2 T adobo mixture, 1 ½ tsp oregano and 1 ½ tsp salt. Stir to combine and remove from the heat.
- Place black beans in the crock of the slow cooker. Add the vegetable mixture, bay leaf and 6 cups of water. Cook on high for 4 hours and switch to low for an additional 2 hours. Check the consistency then and cook for more time if desired. (On either low or high.) If the soup finishes before you are ready to eat, switch the slow cooker to the warm setting if it has it.
- If desired, use an immersion blender to puree part of the soup. This helps to add creaminess. Taste for seasonings. Serve immediately with garnishes or transfer to a glass container to cool and refrigerate for later use.
Notes
Quick Buttermilk Cornbread
Ingredients
- ½ cup 1 stick (112 g) unsalted butter melted
- 1½ cups buttermilk *See note below
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups yellow cornmeal
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C). Spray or butter the bottom and sides of a 11×9 inch metal baking pan. (You can use a 13×9 pan, but the bread with be thinner and may cook a bit faster.)
- Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Remove from heat and add eggs and add buttermilk, whisking to combine. Add eggs and whisk to combine again.
- Combine the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and stir or whisk to combine. Add the the buttermilk mixture to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon just until combined.
- Spread mixture in the prepared pan and bake for approximately 20-25 minutes or until the edges are starting to brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Best served slightly warm with butter, but will keep at room temperature for up to two days. Toast the leftovers and they will be just as good as the first day!