Name: One Pot Black Bean Soup
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients: 2 tbsp olive oil; 1 onion, diced; 1 green pepper, diced; 2 celery sticks, diced; 4 garlic cloves, crushed; 2 tsp ground cumin; 1 tsp smoked paprika; 1 tsp dried oregano; 720 g tinned black beans, drained and rinsed; 1 litre vegetable stock; 1 bay leaf; 1 tsp salt; 1 lime, juiced; 1 tbsp sherry vinegar; 100 g soured cream; 2 tbsp coriander, chopped

One Pot Black Bean Soup

Black beans, onion, peppers and cumin simmered in a single pot for 40 minutes, then partly blended for a thick, smoky soup.

50 min total Serves 6 servings Easy

Don't Make These Mistakes

Blend only part of the soup for body and texture.

Add the acid at the end.

Thin with stock if it thickens on standing.

How to Make One Pot Black Bean Soup

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Heat the oil in a large pot. Cook the onion, pepper and celery for 8 minutes until soft. Add the garlic, cumin, paprika and oregano and stir for 1 minute.
Add the beans, stock, bay leaf and salt. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 30 minutes.
Remove the bay leaf. Blend about a third of the soup with a stick blender, leaving the rest chunky.
Stir in the lime juice and vinegar and taste for seasoning.
Ladle into bowls and top with the soured cream and coriander.

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Why the Method Works

What makes a black bean soup thick without a spoonful of flour? The beans themselves. Blend about a third of the soup, return it to the pot, and the starch from the crushed beans thickens the rest while leaving plenty of whole ones for texture. That is the whole trick, and it takes two minutes.

The flavour starts in the pan. Cook the onion, pepper and celery slowly in oil until they are soft and sweet, then add garlic, cumin, smoked paprika and oregano. Let the spices fry for a minute so they release their oils. Everything then simmers together in one pot with tinned beans and stock, so there is nothing else to wash.

Add the lime juice and vinegar at the end. Acid brightens the earthy beans and lifts the smoky spices, but if it goes in early it dulls and fades. A spoonful of sherry vinegar or cider vinegar is traditional.

Serve the soup in wide bowls with a spoon of soured cream, chopped coriander, diced avocado and a wedge of lime. It improves after a night in the fridge, as the spices settle into the beans.

After You've Cooked It

Keeps for 5 days in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer.

Changing the Recipe

Lemon is the everyday swap for lime in this kind of dish — the acidity plays the same role even though the flavour is not identical.
An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
Fresh herbs work in place of the dried oregano at roughly three times the quantity — a teaspoon of dried is about a tablespoon of fresh, chopped.

What to Serve Alongside

Rice
Cornbread
Avocado
Tortilla chips