Black Bean Chipolte Soup

I belong to a great group on Flickr called 365 Moments. One of the other members is a chef & this week I decided to try the this soup from her website iSimmer


Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1-1/4 cups diced yellow onion
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
6 cups salted chicken broth (fresh or canned)
1 (14 ½ oz.) can of kidney beans, drained
2 (15-oz.) cans unseasoned black beans, drained
2 individual chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (We had to go to a special Mexican market to find these)
1/2 cup tomato paste
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
3/4 cup sour cream or yogurt
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Garnish:
1/4 cup sour cream or yogurt
Whole cilantro leaves
1 lime cut into wedges

Heat oil in a large soup pot over medium-heat. Add diced onion and garlic and sauté until transparent. Add spices and continue cooking for 1 minutes. Add chicken broth, kidney beans, black beans, chipotle peppers with sauce, and tomato paste. Simmer uncovered over medium heat for 45 minutes. Add baking soda. Some foaming will occur as the acid in the tomato paste is neutralized.

Add ½ cup sour cream/yogurt to the hot soup mixture. Carefully puree the hot soup with a hand immersion blender. The soup will be flecked with bean skin when it is pureed. Hold over low heat until served. Fold in the Chopped cilantro just before ladling soup into bowls. Garnish each bowl with a dollop of the remaining sour cream or yogurt, cilantro sprig, and a lime wedge.

Serves 6

This was such a wonderful black bean soup. The flavors were just so spot on. I found it a wee bit spicy but the addition of the yogurt helped a lot. Matt on the other hand said it wasn't spicy at all. Just perfect for these cold winter nights. This one could easily be made vegetarian by using vegetable broth instead of chicken.