Slow Cooker Blackbean Soup

It is definitely time for some soup! The cool weather screams to be dealt with and what better way than a steaming bowl of good, thick soup? I mean, besides building a snowman?

Black Bean Soup
1 pound dry black beans
water
2 teaspoons salt
4 slices bacon
1 small onion, diced
1 carrot, grated or diced
1 celery stalk, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground corriander
1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage
2 tablespoons lime juice
avocado, cilantro, sour cream and hot pepper sauce for serving
Soak black beans in 6 cups of water overnight. Drain and rinse beans. Place in a slow cooker and cover with 8 cups of water. Turn on high and cook for 6 to 7 hours. (Or cook beans on the stove top according to package directions.) When beans are soft, stir in salt. Heat a large sauce pan over medium high heat and slice bacon into it with shears. Stir and cook bacon until it is beginning to brown, then remove all but 1 tablespoon of the fat. Add veggies to pot with the olive oil. Cook and stir for another 5 minutes or until onions begin to be brown. Stir in 3 cups of the beans (reserve the rest for another use), 3 cups of the cooking liquid, cumin, coriander, sage and the lime juice. Continue cooking for 10 minutes and check seasonings, adding more spices or salt if needed. Serve topped with avocado chunks, cilantro and sour cream. Pass the hot pepper sauce for those who want to kick it up a notch.

Hints: This is a good recipe for getting dinner together in a hurry with minimal preparation time. But like all slow cooker recipes, you need to have a plan ahead of time. Fairly inexpensive, quite healthy and yet still tasty. Use a bit less of the bean cooking liquid if you want a thicker soup. I like to serve it with some lovely corn bread.

This is a simple soup that is satisfying and filling--isn't that the best kind of soup?