Black Bean Soup

My own recipe, invented after looking at lots of others around the Internet. This can take more tomato if you like it. Maybe a bit of lime juice or red wine or sherry vinegar would be nice, or even some actual sherry (but not all at once!). Could use dried oregano instead of the coriander (cilantro), but I don't think both at once would be nice. You don't need to soak the black beans, but if you do, cook them in the soaking water or you'll lose a lot of the colour. They cook much more quickly than you might expect - I've had them finished in under 45 minutes, without pre-soaking.

Serves 3-4

• 1-2 tsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 onions, chopped finely
• 6 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 green chilli, chopped
• 1/2 tsp cumin seed
• 200g (7oz) (dry weight) black beans, cooked until soft, plus stock from cooking
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• pinch of dark stock powder
• chilli sauce to taste (Encona brand is good)
• large pinch of chilli powder
• small handful fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves, chopped
• salt and black pepper

Cook the onions in the olive oil until quite brown (15-20 minutes). Add the garlic, chilli and cumin seeds and cook about 10 minutes longer until it smells nice.

Add to the beans with the tomato and paprika and enough water that it can simmer without catching. Cook, uncovered, about 10 minutes for flavours to blend, then add stock powder, chilli sauce and/or chilli powder to taste. Stir in the coriander and simmer about 5 more minutes.

Put in a blender and puree roughly - leave a few whole beans. Add more water if necessary - the texture should be quite thick, though. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. If wished, garnish with a bit of chopped coriander.

Serve with tortilla chips or just on its own.

Kake's (Vegan) Cookery Site - http://www.earth.li/~kake/cookery/
This page added 7 Nov 2000 - comments and questions to Kake L Pugh (kake@earth.li).