Heddy's Black and Red Bean Soup

This fast and easy soup came out fabulously!


Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons maple syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 4 cups vegetarian vegetable broth
  
• 2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 (15.5 ounce) cans canned red beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, with liquid
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can crushed tomatoes, with liquid
  

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.
2. Add the onion, celery, carrots and garlic; cook and stir for a few minutes to release the flavors.
3. Season with maple syrup, cumin, chili powder, and black pepper.
4. Pour in the vegetable broth, black beans, 1 can of red beans, and corn. Bring to a boil.
5. Combine the other can of red beans and the crushed tomatoes in the container of a large food processor or blender. Process until smooth.
   
6. Pour the processed beans and tomatoes into the soup pot and stir to blend.
   
7. Reduce heat to medium, and simmer for 15 minutes. Then serve!

What We Do:
We used fire-roasted tomatoes and did not consider the soup spicy at all. We also used 4 vegetarian vegetable bouillon cubes with 4 cups of water as a broth substitute. You could make your own broth by cooking and straining veggies if you wanted. We left it on the stove simmering on very low heat all day, adding the celery toward the end. We'll add some barley next time for a full protein. We served it with some sweet cornbread.

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