Black Bean Soup

I made this soup up today because I wanted black bean soup, but I used to make it with canned black beans and I don’t have those. I only recently learned about pressure cookers. They’re a great way to save time and cooking energy once you get over the fear of using them. We haven’t had any exploding disasters so far. I think they’re caused by overfilling the pressure cooker or not using enough liquid. I like this soup very much and hope you do too. Try it with tortillas.

1 C dry black beans

1 1/2 C water

2 t cumin seeds

1/2 t chili powder

4 garlic cloves

1 small onion, roughly chopped

1 dry smoked chili pepper

1 C broth

1 t salt

2 cups grape tomatoes (or larger tomatoes chopped)

1/2 cilantro, chopped

juice from 1 lime

Soak the beans overnight.

Strain beans and put them into a pressure cooker with the water, cumin seeds, chili powder, garlic and onion. You don’t have to carefully chop the garlic or onion because the pressure cooker will nearly dissolve them anyway. Pressure cook for 7 minutes.

Do not pour off the liquid used in cooking the beans. Add chili pepper, broth, and salt and simmer 10 minutes (or more to get more spiciness out of the pepper).

Blend 1 C of the beans and 3/4 C of the liquid together until beans are pureed. Pour back into the soup.

Add tomatoes and simmer 10 more minutes. Smash any whole tomatoes against the pan with a spoon.

Before serving, stir in cilantro and lime juice.

serves 3-4