Black Bean & Italian Sausage Soup

Signlady's Note:

This is one of my favourite soups-as-a-meal dish. It is very hearty and is a good comfort food on a cold day. This recipe is a great way to use Italian Sweet Sausage (hot sausage would be good too). Eden black soy beans can be used for the carb conscious--skip the optional rice or pasta addition.

• Total Time: 55 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 3 slices bacon, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped in medium sized pieces
• 4 Italian sausages, removed from casings, broken up
• 2 small yellow peppers or 2 small orange peppers, chopped
• 4 cups chicken stock (I used 900ml container-low salt)
• 2 (14 ounce) cans black beans or 2 (14 ounce) cans black soybeans, drained and rinsed
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• salt, pepper, pepper flakes
• left over rice (*optional-see note below) or pasta (*optional-see note below)

Directions:

1. In a large soup pot on medium heat, fry the bacon bits to get some fat to coat the bottom of the pan.
2. Add the garlic powder, chopped onion, chopped peppers, and Italian sausage broken up into chunks. Fry on medium heat until the sausage is no longer pink.
3. Add the chicken stock, 1/2 tsp of cumin and one can of black beans. Simmer covered for 30 minutes.
4. Use an immersion blender to blend some of the soup so that there are still lots of unblended chunks--about 10-15 seconds on high.
5. Add the other can of drained, rinsed beans and 1/2 tsp of cumin.
6. Season with salt, pepper and/or pepper flakes if you like it spicy.
7. Simmer for another 10 minutes.
8. *Serve with a dollop of sour cream if desired. I also serve it over a couple of tablespoons of leftover rice or pasta in each bowl to make it a hearty meal.