Black Bean and Salsa Soup

I continue to search for great vegetarian recipes. I have a couple of wonderful cookbooks I keep drawing from, but occasionally, I hit a recipe wall. Recently I was in this predicament and asked some of my Facebook friends for help.

This is tricky, because our family avoids dairy, pork, and eats gluten-free (did I miss anything?) Invariably someone’s recipe suggestion gets nixed for one of these reasons. But a friend gave me a great recipe and the best news of all is, it’s quick! The recipe calls for a can of beans, but we can buy only dried here. Never fear, it can still be quick.

Here’s the best tip ever: don’t worry about all that pre-soaking and cooking. Put dry rinsed beans in a pressure cooker and cover with three times as much water as beans and cook for 30 minutes, then let cool down by the natural cool-down method (i.e., turn it off and let it sit until it’s ready to open), and TADA! Beans, ready to pop into your favorite recipe. Just make sure you use a stainless steel pressure cooker. Those aluminum ones leach aluminum into your food, and we weren’t meant to consume aluminum!

Black Bean and Salsa Soup

Serves 4 (so we doubled it)

Ingredients