Black Bean & Salsa Soup

With the recent cold snap and "winter weather event" that has blown through, a nice tasty soup is in order. This one is perfect because it only has a few ingredients and they are ones you likely already have on hand. And bonus! If you wanted to try the Crock Pot Black Bean Soup, but just weren't up for the extended time frame associated with crock pottery-ism, this recipe is for you!

Black Bean and Salsa Soup

1 medium onion, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbsp olive oil

3 15 oz. cans black beans, drained and rinsed

2 cups vegetable broth

1 1/2 cups salsa

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

sour cream

chopped green onions

1. In a stock pot, saute minced onion and garlic in olive oil.
2. In a blender or food processor, combine two cans of beans, broth, salsa, and cumin. Blend until smooth.
3. Add the bean mixture and third can of beans to the stock pot and heat over medium heat for approximately 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated.
4. Ladle soup into individual bowls and top each bowl with a dollop of sour cream. Sprinkle with green onions. Serve with your favorite bread.

Notes: 

This recipe is perfect to use up partial jars of salsa that hibernate in your refrigerator. I don't know about you, but I prefer chunky salsa, and my husband prefers runny salsa (I believe this is called "restaurant style"). Anyhootle, this means that we are usually stuck with two half-empty jars at any given time because one person can only eat so much salsa.

Also, I am not adverse to substituting the beans in this recipe. You will note that there are a few lighter colored beans in the photo above. That is because I substituted one can of black-eyed peas. With all of the spices and salsa in the recipe, you can't even taste the difference.