A few years ago, the concept of cooking a soup at home intimidated me.  Soup recipes seemed to have so many ingredients and be such a long process.  I actually used to not be a big soup fan in general.  Then I slowly started to come around to soup and I developed a few favorites.  I love a good minestrone (Whole Foods makes a great one), a great french onion, or chicken tortilla (Panera has a good one).

Eventually, I decided that I would tackle soup for the first time.  I found a great recipe for an easier version of a chicken tortilla soup from Martha Stewart.  Easier meaning that it’s minus the chicken, so I wouldn’t have to worry about the meat component (I don’t eat much meat in general).   It has easy to find, easy to prep ingredients, and it’s a quick process.

Recently, one of my friends had minor surgery so I thought it would be a nice gesture to bring them some soup.  They are a vegetarian so I made this soup and made sure to use vegetable broth to keep it vegetarian friendly.  He said he loved it!

Vegetarian Black Bean Tortilla Soup

Yields 6-8 servings, Adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients

• 1/2 medium onion, diced
• 1 Tbs oil
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 2  cans diced tomatoes (14 oz., I use no salt added)
• 2 cans black beans (15 oz, again, low sodium)
• 1 can vegetable broth (or chicken broth if you want)
• 10 oz package of corn kernels
• salt and pepper to taste
• tortilla chips to garnish
• lime to garnish

Method

1. Warm up the oil in a soup pot on the stove on medium heat.  Add in diced onions and cooks about 5 minutes until translucent.  Reduce the heat slightly and add garlic and chili powder.  Make sure the garlic doesn’t burn.  Cook until fragrant.
2. Add tomatoes with juice.  Add drained black beans, broth, and 1 cup of water.  Finally add corn.  Cook on medium heat to bring it up to a boil. Reduce it to a simmer and add lime and tortilla chips as desired for garish or wait until you plate the soup.