Gastronomer

Cuban Black Bean Soup

 

The beauty of this soup is that you can prep everything in the morning then go about your day.  Upon your return home dinner or lunch is ready.  My slow cooker is one of the best investments I have ever made.  The smells of food that has been cooking low and slow takes me back to my grandmother’s kitchen.  

 

Ingredients

 

• ⅓  lb dry black beans

• water

• 1 small onion

• 1 bell pepper, diced

• 1 garlic cloves, smashed

• 2 bay leaf

• 1 ½ tsp ground cumin

• TT Salt

• TT  Fresh ground black pepper

 

 

Instructions

 

• Sort the beans and remove any stones or broken beans.

• Place the beans in a slow cooker and cover by several inches with distilled water. Let soak overnight. Drain beans before cooking.

• Cut the dice onions small cut and add to the beans, along with the garlic cumin, ground pepper, bell pepper and Bay leaf. Add more water to the beans just enough to cover.

• Stir and taste the liquid the beans will taste like the liquid.

• You can add more water as  the beans cook, if needed, and cook high low until soft, about 5-6 hours or low for 8 hours.

• When there is about 1 hour left for the beans to cook, add the salt.

• Once the beans are tender take out a ½ C of beans and mash into a paste then add to the soup to thicken the soup.

• Serve immediately with a  tablespoon soup of plain yogurt and cilantro.

• To freeze, I like to divide the soup into serving portions for a quick meal fast for those days or night when time is not on my side.