Spicy Black Bean Soup
This healthy black bean soup recipe is easy to make with canned beans. It's absolutely delicious and naturally vegan, vegetarian and gluten free!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on July 10, 2024
Meet my favorite black bean soup! It takes advantage of canned black beans and comes together quickly. Yet the soup tastes remarkably fresh thanks to the carrots, celery and garlic.
Cumin and a little bit of sherry vinegar (or lime juice) add a Cuban flair that takes it over the top. This lightly creamy black bean soup is packed with flavor.
This homemade soup is a million times better than the store-bought variety. Read the comments if you don’t believe me just yet!
How to Make The Best Black Bean Soup
A few notes and tips before you get started:
You don’t need a long list of ingredients for complex flavor. Basic, fresh aromatics like onion, carrots and celery make all the difference. Just cook them until they’re nice and tender.
Briefly sauté the cumin, garlic and red pepper flakes to enhance their flavor. Then, add the remaining ingredients and gently simmer until the beans are tender and the flavors have melded.
To achieve the perfect soup texture, purée a portion of the soup in the blender until it’s super creamy. Then stir it back into the pot. Ta da! Now you have black bean soup with tender beans and a lightly creamy consistency, no cream required.
Black Bean Soup Storage Tips
I should mention that this recipe makes quite a lot of soup. Leftovers will keep well for four to five days, so it’s perfect for weekday lunches.
You can also freeze this soup. I always freeze my soup in pint-sized mason jars, leaving room for expansion at the top and waiting to screw on the lids until the soup has fully frozen. Then I just defrost it later.
Slow Cooker Black Bean Soup
Rumor has it that this black bean soup turns out well in a slow cooker (Erin said she “basically just put it all in the crock at the same time and slow cooked it for about 6 hours”). If you give that a try, will you please let me know how it turns out?
Please let me know how this soup turns out for you in the comments! I’m always so eager for your feedback and hope my recipes turn out wonderfully for you.
Craving more hearty vegetarian soups? Don’t miss the following soup recipes on Cookie and Kate:
- Vegetarian Chili
- Butternut Squash Chipotle Chili
- Pinto Posole
- Mexican Quinoa Stew
- Best Lentil Soup
- Plus my cookbook has eight of my favorite soup recipes!
Watch How to Make Black Bean Soup
Spicy Black Bean Soup
This healthy black bean soup recipe is easy to make with canned beans. Thanks to some basic aromatics and Cuban spices, it’s incredibly flavorful and delicious. This soup is naturally vegan, vegetarian and gluten free. The recipe yields quite a bit of soup (6 to 8 servings)—it is easily halved, or you can freeze the leftovers.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 medium yellow onions, chopped
- 3 celery ribs, finely chopped
- 1 large carrot, peeled and sliced into thin rounds
- 6 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
- 4 ½ teaspoons ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes (use ¼ teaspoon if you’re sensitive to spice)
- 4 cans (15 ounces each) black beans, rinsed and drained
- 4 cups (32 ounces) low-sodium vegetable broth
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
- 1 to 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar, to taste, or 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- Optional garnishes: diced avocado, extra cilantro, thinly sliced radishes, tortilla chips…
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat until shimmering. Add the onions, celery and carrot and a light sprinkle of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetable are soft, about 10 to 15 minutes.
- Stir in the garlic, cumin and red pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Pour in the beans and broth and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Cook, reducing heat as necessary to maintain a gentle simmer, until the broth is flavorful and the beans are very tender, about 30 minutes.
- Transfer about 4 cups of the soup to a stand blender, securely fasten the lid, and blend until smooth (never fill your blender past the maximum fill line, and beware the steam that escapes from the top of the blender, it’s very hot). Or, use an immersion blender to blend a portion of the soup.
- Return the pureed soup to the pot, stir in the cilantro, vinegar/lime juice and salt and pepper, to taste. Serve.
Notes
Recipe adapted from The America’s Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook.
Suggested sides: Chunky avocado salsa, a little green salad, quesadillas or a grilled cheese sandwich.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
I’ve been making black bean soup for years, but thought I’d try your recipe. It’s AWESOME! I love this so much. I add more heat, sometimes a cup of lentils, and I never have celery so I use fennel powder instead. My favorite way to serve it is with avocado slices, tortilla chips, and roasted pardon peppers.
Just made this for lunch and had a Coastal Cheddar grilled sandwich on the side. Yum, yum, yummy.
I kind of halved the recipe. I used all the veggies in the recipe. 2tsp. cumin 3 cups of chicken stock 2 cans of Black beans. Blended a cup in a blender. Delicious!
Next, your lentil soup!
Hello, yes I did! Made it for lunch. Very tasty and will make it again. I added some puy lentils, just for more protein and I had red kidney beans open so used those instead of the black beans. Also I used parsley instead of the cilantro (coriander as we call it over here in UK) as I didn’t have any of that either. Parsley didn’t seem to make much of an impact, so will definitely buy the cilantro next time. Adding lime sounds good too. As you can see I was basically making it with what ingredients I had to hand, but I think it’s the spices and method that is important. Overall, went down very well and my two other diners said they liked it too.
The best BB I have made .Used soaked dry beans extra cup water
Instant pot Soup button after sauté step thanks
This soup is nothing shy of AMAZING!!!!
I just finished making it and had to come to write this review because it is simply that delicious! The cilantro and lime juice at the end add so much fresh flavor.
I will make this time and time again and have already shared the recipe with a few people!
Thank you!!
I’m glad you love it, Malisa! Thank you for your review.
Love your recipes! Thank you so much for making plant based food so easy and delicious for us all. Question I have is.. can you tell me how much salt and pepper you prefer in this recipe? To taste always scares me. Thank you!
I have made this soup many times and love it! I think the prep time takes longer than 10 minuets, it took me 5 minuets to locate and measure the spice. LOL
I have added diced red pepper, a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes 1/2 tsp chili powder and a splash of Lea & Perrins to this soup and it tastes great!
This soup was amazing! I’ll definitely be making this a regular in my soup rotation and serving for guests. I didn’t change anything except to swap out vegetable broth for chicken broth.
Thank you, Cookie & Kate!
I love to hear this will be on rotation for you, Theresa! I appreciate your review.
This was the best black bean soup I have ever made. Easy and super delicious. Thank you for sharing.
Hooray! That’s great to hear, Fran.
LOVE this recipe!! I have yet to make one of yours I didn’t like but this has remained my #1 favorite. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made it and how great I always feel after eating it! Thank you so much for your dedication to easy, delicious and truly healthy food.
That’s great, Alyssa!
The soup was amazing! Easy and the best black bean soup I’ve eaten! I ate it all week for lunch- it was perfect!
I love your recipe, however I made a few changes. Using less cumin and then adding coriander. Chili powder instead of red pepper flakes. Also adding chopped bell pepper. Then mashing about 1/3 of the beans before adding. It was delicious!
Simple and delicious!
Thank you for your review, Gloria!
Excellent flavor! I added half a Jalapeño pepper when sautéing the onions to give the soup some zing and a smoky flavor. Turned out great. Perfect cold weather soup with lots of nutrition after adding the avocado slices.
Thank you for sharing! I’m glad it turned out for you, RJG.
Looking to add more beans to my meals and this sounds like a great start! Can you please tell me what brand of beans you used?
Hi, I try to use organic when I can.
Just made this yesterday for dinner! Everyone loved it. It wasn’t difficult to do either. Loved the flavors! Thank you!
I made this recipe today for the first time. It appealed to me because it does not include green pepper which I find difficult to digest. I used three cups of cooked Rancho Gordo Moro beans and its cooking broth. The detailed directions are superb. The texture is balanced and creamy. Delicious reheated, too. Highly recommended. Thanks so much!
Used a pressure cooker and 1 pound of black beans! Turned out good! :)
I’m glad you loved it, Alison!
How do I convert that to dried black beans?
You will want to cook them ahead of time and then add them. You could try using my How to Cook Black Beans (From Scratch!). Let me know what you think!
Soooo easy! Absolutely delicious soup! Thanks for the recipe..
I’m happy you enjoyed it, Kelly.
Could you just clarify if the 15oz of beans is the drained weight or includes the water please!
Hi Lou, 15oz canned before drained. I hope that helps!
3/9/22
Can I use cauliflower instead of carrots in this recipe? I’m out of carrots. I guess I’m going to try it. Not into Instagram but maybe I will find a way to email you if it turns out well. Thanks!
How did it turn out?
Kate! This recipe is fabulous. I have made a ton of your recipes and this is one of my favourites. Thank you!
Your’e welcome, Kate! Thank you for your review.
Anyone know how long this would need to cook in a slow cooker? Anyone tried it in a slow cooker? Any tips? Never used a slow cooker before. I’m having a dinner party and need the stove space!
This turned out fabulous, I’m not eating meat right now or dairy products and I was getting really hungry for something it’s really hit the spot I didn’t have the cilantro or lime but I used all the other spices and it was really really really good my husband actually made it I copied the directions down for him and he did a great job.
Awesome. This is my go-to recipe. My preference is to use beans from scratch (yay Instapot!). Also a little sriracha and smoked paprika kicks it up a notch.
This was SO good! I can’t eat onions, so I subbed out the onions with green bell peppers and it was still delicious. This is definitely going into our winter meal rotation. Thank you!
This was SO good! The immersion blender really brought it all together, I can’t eat onions, so I subbed out the onions with green bell peppers and it was still delicious. This is definitely going into our winter meal rotation. Thank you!
Wonderful to hear, Amanda!
Perfect soup. I basically halved the recipe. Had fresh jalapeños that I used instead of red pepper flakes. I agree that the lime juice really took it up a notch.
The soup was creamy, spicy, filling and felt so healthy.
That’s great to hear, Emily!
Not spicey enough! Added balsamic vinegar to it. That made it a little bit better. I like my food SPICEY. It was easy to put together. I will try some Jalapeño next time. For now I’ll add medium Pico de gallo.
Excellent soup! I added a can of white corn when cooking it. We added yogurt and cheddar cheese in addition to the items you mentioned as a garnish.
I’ve made this recipe a few times and it’s always a winner. Actually making a batch today so I have lunch for a few days. Yummy
Excellent recipe! I don’t have a blender so I just squished the cooked beans with the side of my wooden spoon :)
Thanks for the recipe. I used broth from a smoked turkey leg and added the chopped, picked over turkey to the soup. I only had 3 cans beans (usually ,make from dry), and more would be better.I used bay leaves and oregano as well as lots of cumin. Great recipe!
Thank you, Peter! I’m glad to hear that.
I assume I could add some rice correct ? any tips on that ?
Hi Bill, you could serve it over rice if you like.
This is a great black bean soup. I have made it once, my wife made it once, and each time it is consistently savory and delicious. I am making it tomorrow again!
Wonderful to hear, Bill! I appreciate your review.
I couldn’t find my recipe so I used your’s and it was fabulous. We like it spicy so I had a small dish of sliced jalapeno peppers for those that want it really spicy. I had also added crisp bacon to the mix.
Here, it is 56* and rainly on a late May day and this was the perfect soup. Tortilla chips and Guac or a dollop of sour cream on the top of the soup.
Thank you.
Connie in Kansas
Thank you for sharing! I’m glad it hit the spot, CS.
We really loved this soup! Great flavor and so easy to make. Next time, I would purée only 2-3 cups instead of the recommended 4 cups, as I think the soup was a little thick and I prefer more chunkier bites. But other than that, it’s fantastic! We topped with tortilla chips, cilantro and corn.
Thank you for your feedback, Sarah! I appreciate your review.
Sooo good
Thank you for your review, Inari!
So I need to use dry black beans. Do I soak them first? How many dry black beans should I use 12 oz? 24?
Hi! You would want to cook them first. I don’t have the dry conversions, sorry!
Made it for my husband for Father’s Day. He Loved it!
I was skeptical because the ingredient list seemed real simple, but I gave it a shot since, y’know, it’s a Cookie and Kate recipe.
I accidentally cooked it down way too much, so the end result was a thick, creamy, curry-like texture. As for the flavor, I wouldn’t say it was spicy, but it pretty good for how easy, quick, cheap, and healthy it was. Thank you so much, once again!
I’m glad you still enjoyed it, SAA!
Hi Kate
Tried your black bean soup and it was delicious.
I cooked the veggies in the pan and added the spices and then put it in the slow cooker with the remaining ingredients and cooked on auto for 4 hours and it turned out great.
Thank you for sharing your recipe.
You’re welcome, Ros!
I made this soup today, using the slow cooker as one reviewer recommended. I made half the recipe, used a tablespoon of sherry and a tablespoon of white wine vinegar, as that is what I had. I used
chicken stock instead of vegetable. I didn’t use cilantro, but I would
next time.
the soup tasted a bit bland, as if the flavor had been cooked out. I added more sherry, more vinegar, and more salt. next time I will
make it on the stove. I think it will be better tomorrow after it sits overnight.
First ever recipe review. That’s how good this was. Followed to the letter, opted for lime juice. Added chorizo sausage. Made enough for family dinner and some to share at work, compliments all around!
I love this soup! Yummy with added spinach too. Love your recipes!
Thank you, Jennifer! I appreciate your review.
I made this soup for the first time today and WOW! Every soup I’ve tried from C+K has been amazing!! I added the TJ canned diced green chiles (per another comment) and it added a nice little kick. I did half the recipe since it’s just me, but I didn’t half the spices. Perfect!
Thank you! I’m happy you enjoyed this one as well, Sarital.
Excellent taste
This is SO. DELICIOUS. New favorite recipe. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Lindsay! I appreciate your review.
Would love to try this recipe as it sounds delicious and I utilize a lot of black beans in my diet. I prefer printing recipes. Tried to print this recipe using the options to NOT show notes, nutrition, images, etc. Print preview showed everything I didn’t want shown and was four pages long – an extra blank page and other with three or four lines in middle.. Yes, I know I can eliminate unwanted pages, but it would still be two pages and include information and image that I didn’t want. Such a waste of paper and ink. This happens with so many on-line recipes and it’s aggravating and frustrating. I have arthritis in my hands and find it difficult to write and I get tired of “waking up’ my device to refer to the recipe. Why can’t printable recipes be designed for one page?
Hi Justel, I’m sorry you had issues. You can choose in your printers options which pages you want to print.