When I was a teenager and would halfheartedly ask my mother to teach me to cook, she would tell me that whatever food I was asking about was “super easy” and then try to spell out everything she put into the meal, without measurements and subject to various alterations depending on her mood. Without giving any real effort to follow her recipes, I just gave up on the idea of cooking Cuban food and instead focused on my pasta-boiling, box-reading, and instruction-following skills.
Fast forward a decade or so, and I’m engaged to this amazing guy who really enjoys cooking and experimenting with food, and I don’t have any of the foods I grew up eating to bring to the table. The summer before I got married, while working at an internship in Phoenix, I dedicated myself to learning a few of the essential Cuban foods that I had loved growing up. And the first food I learned was Black Bean Soup. And Mom was right. It is super easy. To be honest, the hardest part is remembering to soak the beans the night before, but we’ll get to that.
For me, Black Bean Soup is a bowl of Home. It’s the ultimate comfort food—warm and savory, it’s the taste of my childhood. It’s traditionally served over rice, and is enough of a meal to stand on its own, but pairs beautifully with Cuban pork chops or Cuban steak.
Note: I don’t claim to be a culinary master. I didn’t go to any cooking school, and I guess I’ve been cooking for less than a decade at this point. But I have been eating all my life, ha, and I know what tastes good for me and my family. Feel free to make this recipe your own, and find what works for you and yours.
Beans are wonderful. They’re cheap, filling, nutrient-packed, and delicious. You could buy them canned or dried, and for my cooking I prefer dried. The only problem with dried beans is that you usually have to soak them for hours beforehand so that they soften during cooking. There are magical devices called pressure cookers, instant pots, and slow cookers that manage to cook dried beans without the hours-long soak time, but for now, I’m explaining my method on the traditional stove top. And for this method, you soak the beans at least 12 hours.
A few notes on this recipe:
- Not much will hurt your black bean soup, but one thing definitely will: burning them. Make sure to watch your beans when they come to a boil in Step 5, and drop the temperature as soon as they do.
- Sneak in a veggie! Don’t tell my Cuban father this, but after I add the sofrito to my beans, I add a can of pureed pumpkin to the beans, and stir until well incorporated. It adds nutrition, and also helps to thicken the soup, which is how I like it anyway! Just know you may need to add a little bit more of each spice to taste.
- Have a lot left over? We have a family of 2 adults and 2 toddlers, and we definitely can’t eat a whole pot of beans at one sitting. Another amazing thing about bean soup is that it freezes really well. I usually have two more nights’ worth of dinners. I just make fresh rice and heat up the soup. And actually, leftover beans taste even better than freshly made.
Super Easy Black Bean Soup
Ingredients
For the Soup
- 1 Pound Black Beans (dry)
- 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
- ½ Tbsp Salt
- ½ Tbsp Granulated Garlic
- ½ Tbsp Onion Powder
- ½ tsp Ground Black Pepper
- ½ tsp Cumin
- 2 or 3 Bay Leaves (dried)
- 10 cups Water
For the Sofrito
- 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Granulated Garlic
- 1 tsp Onion Powder
- ¼ tsp Ground Black Pepper
- ¼ tsp Cumin
- 8 oz Tomato Sauce (canned)
- ½ cup White Vinegar
- ¼ cup Pimento Olives
Instructions
The Night Before
- Soak the beans for at least 10 hours in a large pot of cold water.
12 Hours Later…
- When the beans have swollen, strain out the water and add 8 cups of fresh cold water.
- Add olive oil, salt, garlic, onion, black pepper, and bay leaves to the pot and stir the beans.
- Cover the pot, and place the pot on the stove at High Heat.
- When the water starts to boil, bring the heat down to a medium low, and let the beans simmer 2-3 hours.
- After 2-3 hours, you can remove the bay leaves. Once the beans are soft, take a long slotted spoon and crush some of the beans against the inside of the pot.
Adding the Sofrito
- In a separate small sauce pot, prepare the Sofrito. Heat the olive oil on a medium heat and add salt, garlic, onion powder, black pepper, and cumin. Stir spices until lightly browned.
- Once the spices have browned, add tomato sauce and stir. Careful at this step! The tomato sauce with spatter when added to hot oil.
- Once sofrito starts bubbling, add white vinegar. Add ¼ cup of pimento olives with brine, if desired. Stir.
- Add sofrito to pot of black bean soup and stir. Let soup simmer for 20 minutes, then taste and add spices as needed.
- Serve warm over rice.
I like your recipes. As you know, I too have been eating my entire life. Much of it has been edible, and tasty having had a great cook for a mom ( your abuela). Abuelo was also quite skilled in the kitchen but was prone to some ill fated experimentation at times lol. Keep up the good work, and keep those traditional flavors alive . Xoxo