Black Bean Soup

Black bean soup is a wonderful way to launch for your fall season.  The quantities below will make enough to serve for dinner at least twice during the week (depending on the number of people you're feeding!).

4 cups organic dried black beans
Water or vegetarian broth
Oil
4 carrots
1 large onion
2 cans stewed tomatoes
Thyme to taste
Salt & Pepper

Pre-soak beans (either overnight or using a quick soak method).
Rinse the beans and set aside.


My new favorite kitchen appliance -
a Presto 8-qt pressure cooker.

In your pressure cooker's pot, heat oil and add sliced carrots and onions.  Cook vegetables until tender.  Next, add beans and thyme.  Add vegetarian broth (or water) to pot until beans are covered about 2".  Secure the pressure cooker's cover and bring to pressure.  Once fully pressurized, cook the soup for 4 minutes.  Let the cooker de-pressurize on its own.

Pour tomatoes into pot and add salt and pepper.  Reserve about 3 cups of bean mixture.  Puree the rest of the soup.  Combine reserved beans and vegetables with pureed soup.

Serve with corn bread and salad.  Or, serve with a fat round of bakery made rye bread.