3tablespoonsbouillon(to make 3 cups strong vegetable broth)
1/2cupchopped celery
1/2cupdiced red onion
1tablespoonbutter or olive oil for sauteing vegetables
Instructions
Rinse the black beans that have been soaking over night really well.
Place into your crockpot along with the tomatoes and vegetable broth. I can't stress enough that you need STRONG broth, the weak stuff in the containers never, EVER cuts it in recipes. You may as well be using plain water. You want flavor. I use the powdered Vegeta and make my own to taste. If it's not too salty when you taste it, it won't make your soup too salty as there is no other source of sodium in this recipe.
Sautee the garlic, onion and celery until cooked then add it to the crockpot.
Cook on high for 6-7 hours. This is where knowing your crockpot comes in. My old crockpot, on high, took a decent 8 hours to cook this. All crockpots are different but remember that the beans are hard and take a long time to cook. Mine is from my wedding if you can believe it so that darn thing is 12 years old and still works like a charm but I do know that the newer ones cook much hotter. The soup will be done when the beans are soft enough to eat.
Using a hand mixer -or remove 1/4 of the soup and place into a blender- puree some soup to thicken it up. We love a good 1/3 of the soup pureed in to make it a thick, chunky soup, but decide what amount is to your palate.
Notes
Delicious black bean soup with only 6 ingredients!