Loaded Black Bean Soup

Do you ever have those days where you know you ate too much earlier in the day and you know darn well you shouldn't have much for dinner?  Lunch almost always ends up being the largest meal of the day for me.  This is usually because I pack a ton of veggies or fruit to eat along with my proper lunch of a soup, rice dish, or salad.

This lovely soup came about around New Years when the Husband was determined as all-get-out to meet one of his goals for 2015: to get under 184 pounds.  This was a goal he had reached earlier this summer, from starting at just over 200 lbs last January.  Since summer, however, he had become more lax, and of course Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas came to pass with endless goodies around.  For him, he considered this goal a failure if he didn't achieve this goal just before midnight of the new year.

(Now, for the record, I asked about the logic of achieving your goal only on New Years, rather than making healthy habit for a lifetime... in the Husband's mind, a goal is a goal, so I went along and try to steer him as healthy as I could.)

So, for the last week or so before New Years, he dropped all beer from his diet (leaving me to have my occasional evening wine glass to myself).  Three days before New Years he was at the gym daily sweating it out.  Two days before New Years he severely limited his food and drank green tea almost constantly.

Now, fundamentally, I don't have an issue with dropping beer (other than we just bought a keg for our kegerator and now it is sitting idly in the garage), and I don't have an issue with him going to the gym religiously as long as he's not hurting himself.  I DO have an issue with not eating.

So, in an effort to help him to achieve his goal while coaxing him to eat some decent food and not go hungry, I made this Black Bean Soup from Jill Nussinow's pressure cooking cookbook, The New Fast Food, and altered it a bit to include more veggies, more spices, more beans, and some corn.  When calculated out, this large 8+ cup recipe serves 6 and is under 200 calories per serving.

This recipe can EASILY be adapted for the stovetop with a bit more cooking time and using only canned beans.  Please see my notes below.

Loaded Black Bean Soup
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(adapted from Jill Nossinow's original recipe, which you can find here)
Serves: 6
Time: 10 minute prep, 5 minute saute, 7 minute high pressure, natural pressure release, 1 minute high pressure, quick release

Ingredients:
1 large onion, chopped
1 Tbsp minced garlic
3 large carrots, peeled and diced
3 large celery ribs, diced
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (more or less to taste)
1 bay leaf
2 tsp dried oregano (or 2 Tbsp fresh)
1 1/2 cups dried black beans, soaked for 8 hours
6 cups vegetable broth (homemade or low sodium preferred)
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1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup frozen corn, not thawed
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salt to taste
cilantro to garnish
soy yogurt or sour cream to top (optional)

Instructions:

1. Prepare all ingredients before beginning.
2. Sauté the onion and garlic for 2-3 minutes in a heated pressure cooker, adding water as needed to prevent burning.  Add in the carrot, celery, and spices.  Stir well to mix and sauté for 2 more minutes.
3. Add in the soaked dried beans and vegetable broth.  Lock the lid and set to cook at high pressure for 7 minutes (those with an InstantPot can alternatively use the soup function for 7 minutes).  When the timer is done, allow the pressure to come down naturally.
4. After the pressure has been released, carefully remove the lid.  Use an immersion blender, or scoop several cups of the soup into a blender.  Blend until about half of the soup is creamy, leaving quite a few small chunks behind.
5. Add in the canned black beans and frozen corn.  Lock the lid and set to cook at high pressure for 1 minute.  Once the minute is up, carefully quick release the pressure.
6. Serve hot with cilantro to garnish and soy yogurt/sour cream to top.  Leftovers will thicken up in the fridge and the flavors will marinade to make the soup even better the next day!

Notes for adapting for the stovetop:

1. Prepare all ingredients before beginning.
2. In a large soup pot, water sauté the onion and garlic.  Add in the carrot, celery, and spices.  Stir well to mix and sauté for 2 more minutes.
3. Add in 2 cans of washed and drained black beans along with the vegetable broth.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes with the lid on.
4. Use an immersion blender to blend about half of the soup.
5. Add in the 3rd can of rinsed and drained black beans as well as the frozen corn and cook for an additional 10 minutes without the lid.
6. Serve hot with cilantro garnish and soy yogurt/sour cream to top.  Leftovers will thicken up in the fridge and the flavors will marinade to make the soup even better the next day!

Nutritional Info (as calculated on MyFitnessPal.com)
Serving size: 1.5-2 cups soup
Servings per recipe: 6
Calories: 174; Total Fat: 1 g; Cholesterol 0 g; Sodium (varies with broth and added salt) mg; Potassium 314 mg; Total Carbohydrate 45 g; Dietary Fiber 21 g; Sugars 5 g; Protein 14 g