Black Bean Soup (Fat-Free Vegan)

I am a lover of soup right now. I find recipe hunting to be very time consuming, and since I usually tweak any recipe, making it thus my own recipe, I decided to start a thread of soup recipes on my blog. This will also make it easier for me to find the recipes I love without having to re-Search them and re-tweak them.

Today's recipe: Vegan Fat-Free Black Bean Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 lb bag dried black beans
• 1 large onion, diced 
• 6 large carrots, sliced
• 6 stalks celery, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves
• 1/2 tsp. cumin
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley or cilantro
• lemon or lime wedges or paper-thin slices (or can use lemon juice)
• water or vegetable broth (10 cups)

The night before: rinse beans, sort, discard any stones or shriveled beans.

The next day, rinse beans. I like to leave them in the colander at this point so I can use the pot to cook the vegetables, thus dirtying only one pot/pan. Put the onion, carrots and celery into pot and "saute" (cook without oil, but add water if you need to to prevent sticking) for ten minutes. Add garlic and stir, watching constantly, for three minutes.

Add water or broth, beans, bay leaf, thyme and cumin. Bring to a boil, stirring. Cover and reduce heat. Simmer, checking often, for two hours. You may add more water if you deem it appropriate.

Using a slotted spoon, remove 1/4 of the "chunky" content to a bowl. With the remainder, blend with an immersion blender in the pot, or blend in standard blender in small portions to create thick, rich black bean soup that we all know and love. Add the reserved chunky portion (because I like soup you can sink your teeth into). If you prefer, blend all.

Serve topped with chopped parsley or cilantro, and put one sliver or slice of lemon or lime in each bowl. Makes 12 servings.

Serve with salad and whole grain bread.

To keep the non-vegans in my family available, I also make available for them shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, and sometimes tortilla chips.