Black Bean Soup

A spicy soup with Southwestern flair. The weather has abruptly turned cooler, making soup more appealing. We had this for dinner last night, with tomatoes, bell peppers, hot pepper, chives, and cilantro from the garden. Onions from Crabapple Farm. Corn from Schmidt's that I froze a little while ago. If you have time to cook dried beans, they are definitely better, but I have to confess I usually use canned ones. With the new freezer, though, I have ambitions of cooking up large batches of beans and freezing small containers of them for use in recipes like this one. This soup is best with all the optional ingredients, but still pretty tasty without them.

I've been freezing most of the ingredients in this soup, so I'll be enjoying it again in the winter.

Olive oil
6-8 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, diced
1 Tbsp ground cumin
5-6 cups cooked black beans (3 15-oz cans, drained and rinsed)
2 medium bell peppers (preferably ripe), diced
3 cups chopped tomatoes (seeded)
1 1/2 cups corn
1-2 chili peppers, seeded and minced
1-2 veggie bouillon cubes (optional)
1-2 Tbsp lime juice (optional)
1/4 cup chopped chives (optional)
1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped cilantro (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a large pot. Add garlic and onion and saute for 2-3 minutes. Stir in ground cumin. Add black beans, peppers, tomatoes, corn, and chili peppers, bouillon cubes if using, and enough water to generously cover. Bring to a boil, then simmer until vegetables are tender. Add lime juice, chives, cilantro if using, and salt and pepper. Serve.

Serves 4-6.