Healthy Soup to Warm You Up from the Chill

Unfortunately our above freezing weather has come to an end.  It almost felt like Spring for a few days!  When the temperature drops, soup always fits the bill.  I ran across a recipe in Monday's USA Today, which I adapted and made for dinner last night.  It was easy, tasty, and best of all less than 200 calories for 1 1/4 cups, and 9 grams of fiber.  I added some cornbread and a little citrus for dessert, and it was a filling and hearty meal.  I hope you like it!

Black Bean Soup:

Ingredients:

1 small onion

1 T Chili Powder

1 t. ground cumin

2 15 oz cans of black beans, drained & rinsed

3 c water (or I used 2 c chicken stock & 1 cup water)

1/2 cup prepared salsa (I used Tostitos Medium Chunky)

1/4 t. salt

1 T. Lime Juice (I omitted, as my lime was shriveled!)

Sour Cream & Cilantro for garnish if desired

Directions:

Saute' onion in 1T. canola oil for 2-3 minutes, then add chili powder & cumin

Add beans, water or stock, salsa & salt.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat & simmer for 10 minutes.

Remove from heat, stir in lime juice.

Puree' 1/2 the mixture in blender or use hand immersion blender

Garnish if desired & serve

Makes 4 servings 1 1/4 cups each

The taste was great and can be adjusted to suit different heat tolerances, via your chili powder & salsa choices.  It was a little thinner than I thought it might be, so next time I may only rinse & drain 1 can of beans and use the other as is!

Today will be my first knitting class at Magpie's Cottage.  Now that I've adjusted to my crochet hooks, let's see how it goes with two needles!

Wish me luck!

The Real Housewife of Sheboygan County