Black Bean Soup

In my quest of learning how our grandmother's cooked, I have been trying to use less canned items and cook more with what they had.  This soup uses dried beans, that have been soaked overnight.  Of course, if you don't want to use dried beans, you can always open some cans of beans!

Here are the ingredients for this soup:

1 onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 stalk of celery, diced
1/2 red pepper, diced
2 cups dried black beans
2 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon Cumin
Salt
Pepper

The night prior to making the beans, soak them overnight.  The next morning, throw them in the crock pot and cook them on high heat while you are at work.  When you come home take the diced vegetables and saute them in a soup pan.  Saute the vegetables for 5-10 minutes.

While that is sauteing, take the cooked beans and put them in the food processor with the chicken broth.

Add the cumin, salt and pepper to the vegetables and add in the bean puree.  Let that simmer for 45 minutes or so before serving.

Enjoy!