Vegan Black Bean Soup

Looking for a delicious, nourishing meal that the whole family will love? Look no further than vegan black bean soup! It's nourishing, tasty and full of plant-based protein and veggies.

Table of Contents

• Ingredient tips
• Step by step pictures
• Substitutions and variations
• Serving
• Storage
• More easy dinner recipes
• 📖 Recipe

We love experimenting with new and delicious vegan soup recipes. And this easy vegan black bean soup has become one of our favourites!

This hearty and flavourful dish is easy to make and fun to customise with yummy toppings of your choice.

Black beans, aka turtle beans, are our favourite kind of beans. Like other beans, they are high in protein, but we also love how they taste. They are rich in antioxidants and get their dark colour from healthy anthocyanins.

When you're in the mood for a cozy dinner option, this vegan black bean soup is sure to hit the spot!

Ingredient tips

Here's what you'll need to make this easy black bean soup:

You can use either canned black beans, or beans that you have precooked yourself at home.

We use black beans that are canned with no added salt. But as many are canned with salt, we recommend that you taste the soup and add salt to taste for the best results.

You will need approximately 240g or 1 ½ cups of dried black beans to make the equivalent of three drained 400g / 15 oz cans of cooked beans.

For the veggies, we like to use a mix of onion, carrot, celery, and red bell pepper for flavor and texture variety. Feel free to tweak the veggies to suit what you have.

In terms of spices, we use ground cumin, dried oregano, ground coriander and cayenne pepper. It's subtly spicy, but if you like more heat then you may wish to increase the cayenne or use your favourite chili powder for more heat.

The touch of acidity from the lime juice adds an important seasoning element that brings out the flavours of this soup - don't skip it!

Step by step pictures

Here's a visual guide on how to make this easy black bean soup recipe. For the full, adjustable and printable recipe, see the recipe card at the end of the post.

Step 5 - Use an immersion blender to partially blend the soup until you have a thicker, but still chunky, texture. Alternatively, you can remove a portion of the soup and blend it in a regular blender until smooth and then add it back to the soup.

Substitutions and variations

Gluten-free: The basic soup recipe is naturally gluten-free, just check that there's no gluten in your brand of vegetable broth or in any of your topping choices to keep it free from gluten.

You can change up the veggies to suit you:

• No carrot? Then add a green pepper instead.
• Fancy some more variety? Add some cooked corn or frozen corn towards the end of cooking the soup.
• Want a nutritional boost? Stir in some leafy greens, such as spinach, and cook until wilted down.

Serving

This soup goes amazingly with a variety of toppings. You can serve them in little bowls so everyone can have fun customising their own bowl. Here's some of our favourite additions:

• Tortilla chips
• Sliced avocado
• Lime wedges
• Fresh cilantro / coriander leaves
• Sliced green onions, scallions or spring onions
• Raw red onion
• Vegan sour cream or yogurt.
• Vegan cornbread
• Vegan garlic bread
• Cilantro lime rice
• Pico de gallo

Storage

Keep leftover soup in the fridge for up to 3 days in an airtight container.

To reheat, place in a pan on the stove and stir often until thoroughly heated through. Add a splash of water or extra veggie broth if it gets too thick or dry.

You can also reheat individual portions in 30-60 second intervals in the microwave, stirring each time, until thoroughly heated.

This soup can easily be frozen, so it's great if you want to make a double batch to save on time!

To freeze, let the soup cool and transfer it to freezer-friendly containers, label and freeze for up to 4 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat as above.

📖 Recipe