Black bean soup is made with simple canned black beans, vegetable broth, warm spices, and a few other pantry staples for a perfect, budget-friendly weeknight meal.
What You’ll Love About This Recipe
Black bean soup is one of our family’s personal favorites to make during soup season because it is a deliciously creamy soup, made easily with canned beans and a tasty onion carrot mixture, for a simple meatless dinner recipe.
This is also a great recipe to throw in the slow cooker for an easy dinner or lunch the next day without having to stop at the grocery store. Enjoy a Meatless Monday with our crispy bean and cheese burritos, tomato tortellini soup, or our three bean enchiladas.
Key Ingredients
Black beans are the backbone of this soup recipe. They add to the texture of the soup, as well as the creaminess from the beans that have been creamed with an immersion blender.
Vegetable broth (or chicken broth) is adds both flavor to the soup and helps create the right texture – not to creamy and not too chunky – for the black bean soup recipe.
Simple seasonings like cumin, minced garlic, and red pepper flakes add a great depth of flavor and bring the whole soup together.
Equipment Needed
For this recipe, you only need a few simple kitchen tools. We recommend using the following equipment:
How to Make Black Bean Soup
- Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat.
- Add chopped onions, carrots, and celery and cook.
- Add garlic, cumin, and red pepper flakes, and cook until fragrant.
- Deglaze the pan with vegetable broth and scrape any browned bits.
- Rinse and drain the beans in a colander and put them into a saucepot and cook until tender.
- Take about ⅓ of the beans from the soup a blend the remaining beans until smooth.
- Add beans back in the soup and reheat, then season the soup to taste with salt and pepper.
- Just before serving, stir in fresh lime juice.
- Pour soup into bowls and garnish with sour cream, cheddar, and chopped cilantro.
Recipe Variations
Serve this black bean soup recipe with a lime wedge, diced red onions, and some tortilla strips and turn it into a soup bar.
You can also use vegetable stock in place of the vegetable broth if necessary. Turn this into an even creamier soup by adding some cream cheese when blending the black beans.
Add a can of Rotel tomatoes to thin down the sauce or for a simple way to add flavor or more nutrients to the soup.
Expert Tips
- For a thicker soup, you can add one more can of the black beans.
- Add chopped jalapenos or a poblano pepper into the soup for more spice.
Explore More Delicious Soup Recipes
Explore our collection of soup recipes made in the stovetop, slow cooker or Instant Pot. For more soup inspiration, check out our full list of soups.
- Acorn Squash Soup
- Black Bean Taco Soup
- Broccoli Cheddar Soup
- Easy Cabbage Soup
- Easy Black Bean Taco Soup
- Lentil Soup
- Tomato Tortellini Soup
- Three Cheese Broccoli Soup
- Wild Rice Soup
Black Bean Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 carrot, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- (2) 14 oz. cans black beans, rinsed, drained
- 1 Tablespoon fresh lime juice
- ⅓ Chopped cilantro, for garnish
- Sour cream, to serve with
- Grated cheddar cheese, for garnish
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
Prepare the base:
- Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat.
- Add onions and carrots. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes.
- Add garlic, cumin, and red pepper flakes, and cook for 1 minute or until fragrant.
- Pour in the vegetable broth and scrape any browned bits.
Add the beans:
- Rinse and drain the beans. Add the beans into the saucepot.
- Simmer the beans until they are very tender, for 20 minutes.
Blend the soup:
- Reserve ⅓ of the beans from the soup. Blend the remaining beans with an immersion blender until smooth.
- Place beans back in the soup and reheat the soup. Season the soup to taste with salt and pepper.
- Just before serving, stir in the lime juice.
Serve:
- Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with sour cream, cheddar, and chopped cilantro.
Notes
Nutrition
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