Black Bean Corn Soup

Beans and I have a serious love affair going on! We flirt dangerously with each other in all kinds of dishes and I give in to their delicious foodie seductions every time! Beans in ANY soup make my heart go aflutter and I was craving REAL hard for something to make next week's lunch menu super delicious. Boy, did I ever find it! The only down side is that this soup won't be making it until next week's lunch menu!

I always search the far reaches of the internet recipe unknown and give a lot of my finds a try.  A lot of them fail miserably but every once in a while I wander across something that makes a great base and builds up to be something spectacular! This time it was a black bean soup from the Eating Well food site. I could see it was pretty simple and I couldn't tell what potential it held by the ingredients it listed.  Well, the recipe itself was bland and lacked a lot of good rich flavor but I had to rescue it and boy was I glad that I did!

The original recipe was just some water and beans with plain old salsa. That wasn't doing it for me. I am a spicy lady. I needed more zest! I happened to have some chipotle-based salsa in the fridge and knew that the smokey flavors of the chipotle would pair nicely with the dark flavors of the black beans. Man was I right on! The only thing that it needed was a little underlying sweetness. Something to bring up the smokiness and brighten up the dish to it full potential. The lime was good...but there was still something missing. I had some yellow corn on hand for another recipe that I was making later that day and when I pureed that together with the black beans and soup well, it just about made my year. You guys WILL NOT be disappointed by this one for sure!

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 cloves of crushed garlic
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 15-ounce cans black beans, rinsed
• 1 heaping cup of thawed frozen yellow corn
• 3 cups water
• *1 beef bullion cube
• *1 chicken bullion cube
• 1/2 cup prepared salsa ( I used a chipotle based salsa)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 4 tablespoons reduced-fat sour cream (optional)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

(*I found that by adding the chicken and beef bullion  to the mix it gave the soup a deep rich meaty flavor that really added another layer to the dish.) 

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, until beginning to soften, 2 to 3 minutes. Add garlic, chili powder and cumin and cook, stirring, 1 minute more. Add beans, water, salsa and salt. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, add chicken and beef bullions and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in lime juice.
2. Transfer half the soup to a blender, add the cup of corn, and puree (use caution when pureeing hot liquids). Stir the puree back into the saucepan. Serve garnished with sour cream, diced red peppers and cilantro, if desired.

I must have taste tasted it three times more while typing this. Enjoy! (I know I am...I only hope I can contain myself enough to have John taste this)