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It’ll probably come as no surprise to you that I made another slow cooker soup this week. What can I say? I am pretty thoroughly obsessed with them. I love slow cooker soups because they usually yield me quite a few hearty lunch portions and, above all, soup is the kind of food that benefits by cooking longer anyway. So how could I not love them? Plus I can make any kind of flavors I want–Italian, Indian, and now Cuban.

My Cuban grandmother got me a cookbook called The Cuban Kitchen for my birthday this year and, of course, the first thing I looked up was my favorite childhood soup: black bean soup. But I knew immediately that I wanted to try making it in the slow cooker so, after looking up a few recipes online, I figured out just how I was going to do it.

The first thing I really had to do was soak my black beans overnight, then put them in my slow cooker. Then I just added a couple more ingredients and set it.

I really wanted to develop plenty of flavor, though. So I had to set it for 10 hours.

But once I came home to my absolutely delicious-smelling soup, I was sold. It was actually a little watery for my taste, so I complimented it with extra salt and pepper. I don’t usually like my things spicy but the extra pepper actually gave it quite a nice kick that I loved. Now I’m enjoying this soup for the rest of the week. Woo hoo!

Slow Cooker Black Bean Soup (recipe adapted for the slow cooker from The Cuban Kitchen)

Makes: 6 servings
Prep: overnight, then 10 minutes
Slow Cook: 10 hours on Low

Ingredients:
1 (1 pound) dried black beans
10 cups of water
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon dried bay leaves
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Directions:
1. Put black beans in a large bowl with 8 cups of water. Soak them overnight. In the morning, drain and rise them.

2. Put the rinsed black beans into your slow cooker, then pour in the water and top with the rest of the ingredients.

3. Set the slow cooker on low for 10 hours. Add other seasonings as wanted. Once done, mix well and serve!

Have you made a soup you love in the slow cooker? Share your tips and tricks in the comments below!

Irina Gonzalez blogs about healthy slow cooking, nutrition, and weight loss maintenance on her blog The Fit Flexitarian, and here on Momster.com.

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