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A bowl of black bean soup topped with avocado, cilantro, lime and vegan sour cream served alongside tortilla chips.
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4.36 from 62 votes

Easy Black Bean Soup

The perfect vegan black bean soup recipe! It's healthy, easy to toss together and super flavorful. Instructions included for the slow cooker and stovetop.
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time8 hours
Total Time8 hours 15 minutes
Course: Lunch/Dinner
Cuisine: Soup
Keyword: black bean soup
Servings: 8 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 pound (about 2 ½ cups) dried black beans soaked and rinsed
  • ½ Tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 large onion chopped
  • 4 carrots chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic finely chopped
  • 1 Tablespoon ground cumin
  • 1 Tablespoon ground chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 teaspoon dried basil
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 bay leaf
  • pinch of cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt more to taste
  • ½ teaspoon ground black pepper plus more to taste
  • 8 cups vegetable broth
  • For serving: chopped fresh cilantro avocado and lime wedges

Instructions

  • Soak the beans overnight or about 8-12 hours. Drain and rinse.
    Black beans soaking in water overnight.
  • In a large soup pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions, carrots and garlic. Season with a little sea salt and cook, stirring frequently, until onions are translucent and starting to brown, about 10 minutes.
    Onions, carrots and garlic sautéing in a pot.
  • Add all the other ingredients to the pot, except the lime, cilantro and avocado. Stir to make sure everything is combined.
    Ingredients for black bean soup added to pot.
  • Bring mixture to a boil before reducing the heat to medium and letting the soup simmer for about 2.5 - 3 hours, or until the beans are tender and creamy. Remove bay leaf.
    Black bean soup cooking in a pot.
  • At this point you can either keep the beans whole or puree using an immersion blender or traditional blender to your desired texture. I like to puree just until pieces of the beans are still visible. This makes the soup thick, but keeps a bit of the texture.
    Black bean soup after being blended with an immersion blender.
  • Taste soup and season with additional salt and pepper, if needed. Spoon soup into bowls for serving and garnish with avocado and cilantro. Serve with a lime wedge.
    Fresh cilantro added to black bean soup in a pot.

Slow Cooker:

  • Soak the beans overnight or about 8-12 hours. Drain and rinse.
  • In a saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions, carrots and garlic. Season with a little sea salt and cook, stirring frequently, until onions are translucent and starting to brown, about 10 minutes.
  • Place cooked veggie mixture in your slow cooker and add all the other ingredients except the lime, cilantro and avocado. Stir to make sure everything is combined.
  • Cover and cook on high for 6-8 hours, until beans are tender and creamy. Remove bay leaf and follow instructions for blending and serving above.

Video

Notes

  • To make this with canned black beans, you'll need about 3 (15 ounce) cans of black beans and you can decrease the broth as well. You'll likely need about 4 cups of broth, but feel free to add more if the soup is too thick. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1/6 of recipe | Calories: 199kcal | Carbohydrates: 42g | Protein: 14g | Fat: 6g | Sodium: 512mg | Fiber: 22g | Sugar: 4g