This rich and hearty soup is especially delicious on a cold winter day. This has been a family favourite for YEARS and never disappoints! The recipe for this soup originates from a South Beach Diet Cookbook but I’ve made some changes over the years. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I do!

What you need	Makes 7-8 Bowls
Olive oil	1 teaspoon
Yellow Onion	1/2 cup, chopped
Cumin	1/2 teaspoon
Oregano	1 tablespoon
Garlic	2-3 cloves
Black Beans	1 can
Crushed Tomatoes	1 can, 28 oz.
Green Chilies	1 small can
Veggie Broth	1 litre
Hot Sauce	To taste (optional)
Sour Cream	Optional

Chop your onion and throw it in your slow cooker. I usually try to chop it fairly small, so each piece is about the size of a pea, because I just don’t like big chunks of onion in my food. Add all other ingredients to your slow cooker except the tomatoes, hot sauce, and sour cream. Stir then add the can of tomatoes. I prefer crushed because I find it adds more flavour to the broth and because I really don’t like tomatoes in a non-sauce form. It also makes it more of a tomato based broth. If you do like chunks of tomatoes, you can easily sub crushed tomatoes for diced. If you do use diced tomatoes, add the whole can and don’t drain them. Stir again and set your slow cooker to low for 8 hours. You could also cook this soup on high for 2-3 hours if you choose. Once you set the temperature and time, you can forget about your soup until you get home. when you’re ready to eat, ladle into a bowl, add hot sauce to taste (I use Louisiana Hot Sauce but I think that Chalula would be really good as well), and a generous scoop of your favourite vegetarian friendly (or not) sour cream.

Adding Meat

One way to add some meat to this dish is to use chicken broth instead of veggie. You can also add 3-4 chicken breasts. If you choose to add chicken breasts, make sure that you add them first and cook either on high for at least 3 hours or on low for at least 6-7 hours. Also be sure to check that they are fully cooked before you eat the soup. Prior to serving, take two forks and shred the chicken. You can see how to shred chicken here. If shredded chicken isn’t your thing, you can also chop it into cubes.

Final Thoughts

The thing that I like most about this recipe is that it can’t be over cooked which is huge for a busy student! It also only takes about 10 minutes to prepare so it’s super easy to start before you head to your early class. This recipe does make quite a bit of soup so it’s really easy to freeze a few portions for next week, or whenever, and microwave. Lastly, the hot sauce really does give it an extra kick and the sour cream brings it to another level. Once you stir it in, the soup doesn’t taste all “sour creamy” and weird, it really helps bring out the flavour of the cumin.

Cost Breakdown

Black Beans	$1.48
Onion	$0.60
Olive Oil	$0.73 / 100 ml
Cumin	$0.25 / tsp
Oregano	$1.07 / tbsp
Garlic	$1.10 / whole head
Crushed Tomatoes	$1.98
Green Chilies	$2.28
Veggie Broth	$1.47
Hot Sauce	$0.15 / 1 oz
Sour Cream	$0.99 / 100 ml

The total cost to make Mexican Black Bean Soup is about $11.47 CAD or $1.43 CAD per serving. Enjoy!