Black Bean Soup

My son is a huge fan of legumes and so am I. His favorite are black beans, and this soup is crazy good. This bean soup is also a perfect first meal for an infant, just blend their portion until completely smooth.

Ingredients:

1/2 pound of dry black beans
1/2 of a small yellow onion, cubed
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 of a red bell pepper, cubed
2 tablespoons of fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon of ground oregano
2 cups of vegetable stock
A healthy squeeze of lime juice
1 tablespoon of pure olive oil
Salt and black pepper

Preparation:

1. Put the dry black beans in a 3 quart saucepan, cover with water and leave them soaking overnight. You may also use canned black beans, but dry has a much better flavor.

2. The next day, place the saucepan on the stove, over medium heat, and cook the beans until soft. At that point, at least half of the amount of water in your beans should have been absorbed.

3. Remove the beans from the saucepan and place into a medium bowl.

4. Add the pure olive oil into the pan.

5. When hot, add the the onions, sweat until translucent, then add the garlic and sweat for another minute.

6. Add the ground oregano, mix until fragrant and proceed to add the beans.

7. Introduce red peppers, cilantro, salt and black pepper into the mixture. Stir and add the vegetable stock.

8. Let this simmer for about 20 minutes, then blend a cup of the bean mixture with your preferred blending system and add it to the remaining batch. By doing this you will thicken the consistency of the soup.

9. Let it simmer for another 15 minutes and squeeze the lime over the bean soup, mix well and serve.