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.
Try some sliced chorizo! It’s delicious in this, and lentil soup too.
Thanks for your review, Michael!
Hi Kate, I made this dish in Luxor, Egypt and it was so delicious. I added a little more broth and a teaspoon of ancho chili powder and it was wonderful. Thank you
You’re welcome! Thanks for sharing, Betsy.
I made this soup earlier in the week and it perfect for a cold evening. I did not make it spicy since my little ones don’t dig spicy yet. I also used the cooking sherry while I was sauteing the veggies and added lime juice in at the end. We all loved it and my 12 month old has portions set aside in the freezer for him to enjoy later.
how many calories is in one serving?
Hi Cass! The nutritional information is below the notes section of the recipe. Make sure you allow pop-ups as it’s a plug-in on my blog.
I made this soup today. I used a packet of dried black beans, pressure cooked it and then followed your recipe. Thanks a lot for this excellent recipe
Thank you for sharing, Lata!
What do you consider to be 1-serving? 1 cup?
1 to 1.5 cups roughly for this soup.
So good! Made it in my new dutch oven that I got at Christmas, and it was delicious! Super easy with an immersion blender.
Thank you, Julie!
Great for a cold night here in snowy Finland. I enjoy a dollop of sour cream on top, but otherwise perfect.
Sounds perfect, Mark!
Oh dear. My crockpot experiment did not turn out. I tried this with dried black beans since that’s what I can get my hands on where I live. The beans cooked fine (I do this quite often) but I guess my liquid ratio was off because I ended up with a massive amount of what’s essentially refried black beans…which are lovely and I’m enjoying a nice little bean and avocado taco at the moment, but I was really hoping for the soup!
I’ll share my steps for anyone else who is thinking about doing dried beans in the crockpot (so you can avoid my mistakes)
Based on my experience making black beans in the crockpot I calculated that 151g of dried beans = 1 can of cooked. So I used 755g of dried beans thinking it would be the equivalent of 5 cans (since some people commented that they added a fifth can to make it stretch a bit further). I used 6 cups of veg broth. There was still some liquid left when I used the immersion blender, but added at least another cup while pureeing, and it still ended up very thick.
Next time I’d reduce the amount of dried beans and add more broth during the puree stage.
Thanks for the recipe though. I’ll be equally happy eating the refried beans :)
Oh no! Thank you for sharing your experience, Becca.
Hi Kate! Unrelated to this recipe, but since you regularly recommend some of the products you use, what’s your go to hot sauce? I’d like to try something different than Huy Fong’s sriracha; not necessarily spicier, just deeper.. Thanks!
Thank your for sharing Spicy Black Bean Soup recipe.
You’re welcome!
Wow such perfect wonderful timing to receive this recipe this morning with my kids being home for a snow day from school and wondering what to make us all to eat! This looks amazing and healthy for this cold day thank you Kate!
Let me know what you think, Blakie!
I love your recipes. I would love it if you could give details for not using canned beans, tomatoes etc. Dried beans are so great and healthier for us and the planet. Please give recipes with dried beans.
Brenda,
I always use dried beans. I cook a bunch up at a time and freeze them in 3-cup (equivalent to 2 cans) servings in zip-lock bags. Then they are always in the freezer ready to go and you can just substitute them for the canned.
Kate, I found this recipe resulted in more of a stew than a soup; is that how you intended it to be? I ended up adding more broth at the end. Always love your recipes!
Can I make this spicy black bean soup in the slow cooker ?
Lori
I haven’t tried it, but I believe others have and have shared their experiences in the comments.
Is it necessary to rinse the beans? I prefer a more brothy black bean soup so I was thinking of not rinsing. Do you think this would be good without blending some of the bean mixture?
Hi Julie! Rinsing the beans helps to remove the excess salt and starch and improve flavor. The blending really helps with overall texture and helps the flavors really sing.
This recipe comes at the perfect time! My husband does NOT cook, and I am 26 days from a bilateral mastectomy. Not being able to cook will make me insane! This will be an easy recipe for hubby to make, unless you want to drive down the turnpike a couple hours and make it for me? ;-)
Found this recipe in the fall and have been making it all winter long! It’s been the best when I add enough salt and lime juice to make the flavors sing. Amazing with diced avocado and crumbled cotija on top…and some cornbread on the side :)
This has been my favorite black bean soup and was my introduction to Cookie+Kate years ago! I used to enjoy a great black bean soup at a favorite Mexican restaurant and just knew I could find a way to make a great one at home also. After scrutinizing many others, this soup was the winner — for me AND for the dozen+ people I have served it to. I make it regularly…and if you are lucky my enough to have leftovers, they taste amazing the next day also! Thanks Cookie+Kate for always making me look like a hero! Keep them coming!
This soup sounds delicious. I do not have access to black beans or celery. Do you think it would work using small white beans or pinto beans, and can I substitute celery root for the celery stalks? Thanks
Can this be made with dry beans in an Instant Pot? Thanks. Looking forward to making. Fondly,
Lisa
I haven’t tried it, sorry!
Kate you are my favorite food blogger! I make soooo many of your recipes. I make a very similar Black Bean Soup in the Crockpot! I use a whole bag of black beans (16 ounces) and use 2 red onions, a red a green bell pepper all sauted with cumin and garlic. Throw into the crockpot with the black beans and 1 T. of chopped canned chipotle chiles and 7 cups of water or chicken broth add lime juice too.
The immersion blender works great in crockpot! A dollop of plain greek yogurt is great on top for those that partake in a small amount of dairy.
I’m trying your version next!!
Thanks for sharing, Krystin! I appreciate the review.
Once again .. a fabulous soup. I love these recipes that come together quickly from pretty much kitchen staples. Kate, you are the queen of soups! I cut back on the cumin a little (not a big cumin fan), increased the red pepper flakes and added a little crushed chipotle chile pepper. It was delicious!!! I think my husband was dubious at first (he is of anything without meat), but after he tasted it he was a convert: “I LIKE this, it has a little kick to it!”.
Thank you Kate for another great recipe! Five yums!
I don’t know about queen, but I appreciate the compliment! Thanks so much for commenting, Mo.
Hi
Your recipe looks very creative and healthy. The combination of carrot and black beans is too good. I like the way you give the finishing touch with vegan concept. Thanks for sharing this dish with us….
You’re welcome! Thanks for the review.
Thanks for another stellar recipe! I made this tonight and there aren’t a lot of leftovers, we both had seconds. The lime juice was an excellent touch.
You’re welcome, Nancy! Thanks for the review.
I automatically double every recipe of yours to feed my family. That usually leads to a long prep time for me. But, even when doubling this soup recipe, it was a breeze to make; so swift and easy! Very filling and satisfying! Thank you!
I’m glad it was still a breeze, Beth!
The soup receives definitely ***** and an A+…a senior living alone..I can’t wait to share with vegetarian family members when they visit!
Thank you!
I threw all the ingredients into the slow cooker at once, set it for 6 hours, and it turned out super delicious! I halved the red pepper flakes because I’m a spice wuss, left out the oil, and added 8oz fresh mushrooms because I love the meaty texture of shrooms in soup. Great recipe, Kate! Thank you!
Thanks for sharing, Rachel!
This black bean soup looks beautiful and like the perfect cozy recipe for a cold winter day!
Thank you, Ashlyn!
This looks delicious and I’m making it now…how much salt do you recommend adding?
Hi! It really depends on your preference. Less than 1/4 tsp.
I can’t believe how delicious this soup is, considering how simple it is to make! The only changes I made were that I used 2 carrots instead of 1, and I used vegetable stock instead of broth. I seasoned it well with salt, which I think any bean soup needs. WOW, it is SO GOOD. Thank you!
I’m really glad you loved it, Maddie!
This was amazing!! Loved it!
Happy to hear that! Thanks for sharing, Patricia.
My husband and I made this recipe and thoroughly enjoyed it topped with avocado, sour cream and a few nacho chips. Easy and delicious.
Thank you for sharing, LaVerne!
Ok, I made this tonight for myself and my vegan son and it is INSANELY good…I can’t stop sneaking another quick spoonful! So simple and such a rich and comforting flavor. Just used my immersion blender and poof, done. Perfect consistency. Topped it with some scallions, avocado, tofutti sour cream…thanks so much for the recipe, your site never fails!
Thanks, Lisa! I’m glad you love the recipes from the blog.
Kate, I mistakenly bought dried red beans, and living too far from any market I decided to use them instead, cooking the beans first in my instant pot, draining them, then adding all of the rest of the recipe’s ingredients, putting back into insta pot for 12 min on bean setting, then puréed 1/2 and it was very tasty!!
I’m glad this still worked for you, Kathy! Thanks for the review.
Made this this weekend and it was amazing!! Ate it plain mostly, but also added pepperjack cheese, tortilla chips, avocado…ate it with jalapeno cheddar bread, but corn bread would be great, too! Planning on making it in the crock pot next week. So quick and easy!
Also, I just used my nutribullet to blend. :)
Thanks for sharing! Sounds like a great combination, Kayla.
Love it! Even my super picky kids liked it. Thank you.
You’re welcome, Nicole!
I thought my wife and kid’s would hate this since it’s black bean soup (some sort of trigger for them). They loved it. Multiple helpings. I got one spoon full. Wonderful recipe.
Great to hear, Alankar! Thanks so much for the review.
I am following a whole food plant based diet and relatively new at doing so. I was looking for soup recipes and this one jumped out at me.
I decided to make half the recipe in case it didn’t turn out so well. That was a mistake! I served it for dinner last night and my husband and I LOVED it! It was so flavorful and perfect for a cold night! I took two cups out to puree and should have only taken one as I halved the recipe. That made the soup much thicker and we finished it with only one serving each. Hopefully, the next time I will follow the directions for a full batch and we will have plenty left over. I added a bit more broth last night to thin the soup a bit.
Thank you for an excellent recipe and a really nice addition to my new way of eating.
I’m glad you loved it, Liz!
Hello from Switzerland! I am so happy to have found your website. I love your recipes! We had the spicy black bean soup last week and it was a great success with my family! Your recipes are very inspirational and the photos are really nice and appetizing…
We also have a dog. Her name is Lola and she is always very patiently waiting to get some chopped veggies when we prepare your delicious recipes. Carrots are her favorite!! Lots of Love from the French-speaking part of Switzerland at the shores of Lake Geneva, Ute
I’m happy you found it too! Thanks for commenting, Ute! I appreciate the review.
This soup is so satisfyingly delicious on a cold winter day and it is very easy to make. The perfect recipe!
I agree! Great soup to warm-up. Thanks for your review, Tina!
I made Black Bean Soup today according to your recipe. Because I love spicy, I added a little more crushed red pepper flakes and served it over Quinoa…DELISH!
Thanks for letting me know you loved it, Anita!
Excellent soup fo a chilly New England day! The changes I made were:rendered about 4 oz. of salt pork and skipped the oil and salt to cook the veg, skipped the cumin and cilantro, used 1/2 & 1/2 veg and mushroom stock, used the lime juice rather than sherry vinegar. Did it in the slow-cooker, then stick-blended about 4 cups (in a formerly pickle jar, which is great at containing splashes. Couldn’t have been any easier. I will definitely make it again before winter is over.
Thank you for sharing, William!
Hey!
I loved this recipe. I made it today and it is a keeper! So flavorful and easy! ❤️
I’m glad you loved it, Becky! I appreciate the review.
So I don’t often eat soups. But this one? Was amazing! Just made it and ate a bowl now in fact! Its perfect. Tastes great, and quick to make. I am gonna save a bit for a bowl for tomorrow and freeze the rest! Thank you so much for this recipe!
I’m happy you tried it! Thanks for your review.
Just made this on Sunday and my husband and I loved it! We added a dollop of sour cream to the final product and alternated between eating with a spoon and scooping with tortilla chips. Hearty and flavorful. It’s also been delish as a leftover for lunch. Thanks again for another great tasting, budget-friendly recipe!
That sounds like a great way to eat this soup. Thanks for the review, Lindsey!
The soup was delicious. I blended about a can and a half of the black beans in the broth before adding with the other ingredients to the sauteed vegetables. It was easier than blending when the soup was hot. I also added a can of diced tomatoes with green chilies just ‘cuz I really like tomatoes. Finally, I chopped about half of a red bell pepper to add to the vegetable because I had one.
Thank you for your comment! I appreciate the review.
Followed the instructions exactly (minus celery and cilantro) and it came out AMAZING! I made it a few weeks later by throwing it all in the crock pot on high for 6 hours and it was still delicious, just much, much thinner. I think if I were to make it in the crock pot again, I’d leave out some of the vegetable stock to maintain that thicker quality.
I’m glad you liked it, Kayla! Thanks for the feedback.
We had this for dinner last night and it’s absolutely delicious. I added 1/2 green pepper and 1/2 red pepper with the other sauted vegetables. Also I added Chirizo sausage for some extra spice. Instead of blending up some of the soup I used a hand potato masher for the consistency I wanted. This made it thick enough without over doing it. The lime juice made such a great difference in taste. Thank you for this great recipe Kate and scruffles to Cookie!
So tasty and full of whole foods! I accidentally blended the soup a little too much but just served it over some brown rice to thicken it up and it is delicious!
Thanks for another winner, Kate!
Thank you for sharing, Taylor! I’m glad you were still able to enjoy it.
Hello & Thanks for the recipe, I’m cooking it a slow cooker & I KNOW it will turn out GREAT!!!!! 5 star rating. I’ll let Y’all know how it turns out njhvasta
You’re welcome!