Kickin' Black Bean Soup

This recipe got its legs from the best black bean soup recipe I ever found on All Recipes. I only kept the legs, mind you.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds black beans, cooked, drained and rinsed
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable, chicken, or ham stock
• 1 1/2 cups favorite salsa
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp. dry cilantro
• 3 tsp. ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp. or more cayenne powder
• juice of 1/2 lime
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 Tbsp. sour cream for garnish
• 2 thinly sliced green onions for garnish

Directions

1. Throw all but the last 4 ingredients in your 4-quart crock pot. You need just enough broth to barely cover the beans and no more. (Too much and the soup will be too thin.)
2. Cook on high 1 hour and then low for 5-6 hours.
3. Scoop out one cup of beans to reserve.
4. Use an immersion blender (or food processor or potato masher) to puree remaining beans.
5. Stir in whole, reserved beans.
6. Add lime juice, salt and pepper to taste and stir together, simmering an additional 15-30 minutes.
7. Garnish with sour cream and green onion to serve. Tortilla strips are a nice touch too

I serve this regularly, often with quesadillas for dipping. The whole family loves this! Nick prefers it with more whole beans and the rest of us love it pureed more. Just play with it to get it right for you.