Black Bean Soup

Karen Reker and Phyllis Ackerman prepared this delicious, traditional black bean soup for the Venezuelan celebration their parish recently hosted. They used a variety of colorful peppers — red, orange, yellow, green — giving the dark bean soup a more exciting appearance. CJK  

Black Bean Soup

(Sopa de Frijoles Negros)

1 lb. black beans*

1 tbsp. oil

1 large yellow onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 sweet red or yellow pepper, chopped

1 stick celery, chopped

1 can (60 fl. oz.) low salt chicken stock

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tbsp. chopped cilantro

Place the beans in a large saucepan, cover with plenty of cold water and leave to soak overnight (six to 10 hours). The next day, drain the beans, rinse well and return to pan, cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Partially cover the pan and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours — until the beans start to soften.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the onion, garlic, sweet pepper and celery. Saute until softened. Drain the softened beans and rinse out the saucepan. Return beans to the rinsed out saucepan, add the onion mixture and chicken stock. Mix well and season with salt and pepper. Bring to boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring from time to time.

Stir in cilantro immediately before serving. Serve the soup hot.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

A note from Karen: We added one tablespoon of baking soda per bag of beans to the soaking water to “degas” them. It’s important to pour off the water and rinse the beans thoroughly after soaking.

Instead of using canned chicken stock, we used chicken flavored soup base mixed with water.

This soup freezes well. I froze some of it after the event and found it still tasted great after thawing and reheating. I added a little water to it when I reheated it.

A note from Carol: *One pound of dried beans equals approximately six cups of cooked beans. Three (15 oz.) cans of black beans could be substituted if you are short on time for soaking and cooking dry beans.

Another trick to assist in getting rid of gas-causing molecules is to skim off any white foam that rises to the top of the pot in the first five to 10 minutes of boiling the beans.