Crockpot Black Bean Soup

This slow cooker soup is delicious and easy to make. Considering the dip in temperatures we've had for the last couple of days, soup weather is definitely upon us! Pair this with an easy to make peasant  bread (or considering I'm from the South, I'm also inclined to say cornbread), and you have yourself a hearty meal.

Crock Pot Black Bean Soup

1 lb. dry black beans, separated and rinsed

6 cups boiling water

1 carrot, minced

1 stalk celery, minced

1 large red onion, minced

6 cloves garlic, minced

2 green peppers, minced

2 jalapeno peppers, deseeded and minced

1/4 cup lentils, separated and rinsed

1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes

2 Tbsp. chili powder

2 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. dried oregano

1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

3 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

1 tsp. salt

1/2 cup uncooked white rice

Sour cream for garnish

Shredded cheese for garnish
Green onions for garnish

1. In a large pot over high heat, place the black beans in three times their volume of water. Bring to a boil and let boil 10 minutes. Cover, remove from heat, and let stand 1 hour. Drain and rinse.
2. In a crock pot, combine soaked black beans and 6 cups water. Cook for 3 hours on high. Stir in carrots, celery, onion, garlic, bell pepper, jalapeno, lentils, canned tomatoes, and rice. Season with chili powder, cumin, oregano, black pepper, red wine vinegar, and salt. Cook on high for 3 hours.
3. Taste to make sure vegetables and rice are cooked thoroughly and are seasoned to taste. Puree the soup as desired with an immersion blender or by transferring 1/2 of the soup to a blender or food processor and then pouring back into the pot before serving. 
4. Serve with sour cream and shredded cheese.

Notes

This recipe takes 6-7 hours cook time total, prep all other ingredients while the beans soak in step 1.

Also, if you want to eat this for dinner, start this right after breakfast. (Keep in mind that if you've had a bag of beans sitting in your pantry for a while, they might take even longer to cook, so it's always best to leave yourself a little wiggle room with the timing of a dry bean recipe.)

For those of you unfamiliar with cooking with dried beans, please do not dump the opened pack directly into the pot! Sort through the beans a handful at a time and remove any discolored or misshapen beans (or anything that looks suspiciously like rocks). Place them in a colander and rinse them before placing in a pot and cooking.

When chopping this many vegetables for a recipe, a Cuisinart food processor is your best friend. Especially if you are going for a fine chop for a soup or a salsa. Since all of them will be mixed together, you don't even need to rinse the bowl or blades between mincing. Save time and save yourself from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome!

I don't know about you, but I don't think you can purchase just one stalk of celery. But, there are countless recipes that call for just the one. My method is to just wash and chop the entire bunch at once. I find that if you put the rest of the bunch back in your fridge unchopped, you are likely to end up with wilted celery on your hands (even if you wrap it in foil) because there just aren't that many recipes that call for celery. If you chop it into snack-size sticks, however, you can foist it off on your kids or snack on it yourself!

This post contains affiliate links.