Luckily, it’s not only easy, but also delicious. Added bonus: it’s almost all canned stuff, so you can keep the ingredients on hand, eliminating the need for that dinnertime mad dash to the grocery store. AND–it’s a slow-cooker recipe. In short, it’s perfect. What more could a person want in a black bean soup?
Now, for the record, I don’t usually make an entire meal out of canned food–I actually enjoy a bit of chopping and slicing, and I prefer for my ingredients to at least resemble their original form, but every now and again, when I know that hour before dinner is going to be a train wreck and there’s no way I’ll be able to cook anything, this is my back-up plan. It’s healthy, substantial, and has just enough spice to give it a zingy little kick, which, of course, you can adjust to your liking.
The recipe is from one of my favorite crockpot cookbooks, Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook, by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann. If you have a slow-cooker, you need this book. If you’re thinking of buying a slow-cooker, just go ahead and get the book at the same time. It’ll teach you everything you ever wanted to know, and then some, about cooking in a crockpot. And it’s all real food–this black bean soup is one of the only mostly-canned-ingredients recipes in the book.
Added bonus: this smells absolutely delicious while it’s cooking. Even Toby, who wouldn’t eat a bean if his life depended on it, says it smells good. (Then he microwaves a frozen pizza, and wanders back into his room-cave. It’s all good.)
This is their recipe.
Tomato-Black Bean Soup
Serves 4-6
The recipe recommends a 4 or 5 quart round cooker; I use my 6 quart oval with no trouble.
Two 15-oz cans black beans, rinsed and drained
Two 4.5-oz cans chopped roasted green chiles
One 14.5-oz can Mexican stewed tomatoes with green chiles
One 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, with their juice
1 1/2 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed
4 green onions (white part and 2 inches of the green), sliced into teeny-tiny little rings
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1 to 1 1/2 T. chili powder, to your taste
1 t. ground cumin
Put all the ingredients in the slow cooker and stir to combine. Cover and cook on LOW for 5 to 7 hours (but sometimes I leave it in for longer, or I cook it on high for 3 hours, and it works just fine).
Add some boiling water to thin, if desired. Ladle into bowls and serve hot with a sprinkling of shredded cheddar cheese and a dollop of sour cream.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Sounds amazing I will be getting a slow cooker for Christmas and making this shortly after.
Oh, excellent, Bobbi–Let us know how it turns out.
Made this last night and it was delicious! Thanks for posting it! Only a minor altercation at Walmart when I attempted to purchase green chiles then they refused to sell them to me for unknown reasons… Fine I’ll give Lowes foods my 60 cents.
So glad you liked it, Eileen.