Vegetable & Black Bean Soup

There is a lovely bakery in our neighbourhood. It specializes in bagels, whole grain breads, and an amazing array of Danish pastries! They also do soup and sandwich lunches and the best part of this is that they actually have 2-3 completely vegetarian soups on the menu each day. And by vegetarian I mean that even their basic soup stock is a vegetable stock!!

I love corn chowder and I make it at home every so often but recently I tasted black bean soup at our bakery and loved it. The only drawback was that it was much too hearty and hence rather heavy on the stomach as it was almost entirely black beans. I prefer what I might call a black bean and vegetable soup - and so I set out to work on a lighter version of the soup that would be more satisfying to our taste. And here is the result. Enjoy with some warm freshly baked Whole Wheat Focaccia.

Ingredients:
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 medium onion, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1 green chili, minced
1 dried red chili, crushed
1 large carrot, chopped fine
1 tomato, chopped fine
1/2 sweet red pepper, chopped fine
4 cups vegetable stock
Salt, to taste
1 tbsp olive oil

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add onions, reduce heat, and fry till transparent and tender.
2. Next add the garlic and green chili. fry for 30 seconds. Then stir in the red chilies, cumin seeds, and fry for another 30 seconds.
3. Next add the carrot, crushed red pepper, and tomato. Stir, cover and cook for five minutes. Add the vegetable stock, and salt to taste. Cover and cook for 15 minutes.
4. Now add the black beans, chili powder, and cumin powder. Stir and cook for another 10 minutes.
5. Keep warm until ready to serve.

This recipe goes out to Culinarty - Original Recipe Roundup. Do visit this lovely event which is held from the 15th to 15th monthly to recharge your senses with a rush of creativity. I can assure you that your taste buds won't be disappointed either :)

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