Quick and Easy Black Bean Soup
Mar 19, 2026For me, any soup you can pull together quickly, is naturally gluten free and tastes amazing is a winner and this Black Bean Soup fits that bill.
The best part is that you can cook it on the stove top, in your slow cooker or in your Instant pot.
Isn’t that awesome?
A word about soup
I love soup.
For me, a good soup is like a hug in a bowl.
It's versatile and stretches your food budget.
You can eat this particular soup broth based if you skip the blending part or make it even thicker than the recipe with a bit of cream cheese.
So many soups are adjustable like that.
How to make the best Black Bean Soup
I encourage people to gather their ingredients with any recipe before they start cooking.
You don’t want to be in the middle of cooking and realize you’re missing an ingredient you were sure you had. Ask me how I know this. 😉
Especially if you’re new to cooking, soups are a great place to start learning because leaving out an ingredient here or there or doing the steps out of order is often OK.
But it’s best to be prepared anyway.
Here are a some extra tips to make sure your soup is as yummy as possible.
- Assemble all of your ingredients in the order that you will use them.
- Peel and dice your onion.
- Mince the garlic.
- If possible, cook with someone and have them read the recipe to you as you cook because cooking is more fun with people and then you won’t skip any steps, not that I’ve ever done that (cough cough yes I have).
- If you’re cooking this on your own, read through the entire recipe before you start cooking. There are not that many steps, and I write recipes as if people are brand new cooking.
- Have fun. Cooking is a skill I believe anyone can learn and master with practice. Everyone who cooks well has messed up and thrown a meal in the garbage. If you mess up, there’s always the drive thru, but if you follow the steps here, you shouldn’t need that, at least tonight.
Let’s get cooking!
You can see how I make this soup here:
Black Bean Soup
- 1/2 cup carrots, diced
- 1/2 cup celery, diced
- 1/2 cup white or yellow onion, diced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 cup salsa, your choice of heat level
- Taco seasoning mix to taste
- 2 (15 oz) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
- 8 oz diced ham
- 2-4 cups chicken stock, depending on how thick you want it
- 1/4 cup queso
Toppings and Garnishes (all optional)
- Salsa
- Cut limes
- 1 medium Haas avocado, sliced
- 2 tablespoons Mexican Crema or sour cream
- Tortilla strips
- Cilantro
- Low-fat cheese
- Oaxaca cheese, crumbled
Instructions
- Add your oil to a soup pot and set the heat just above medium or set your Instant pot on saute and heat until shimmering.
- If you're using a slow cooker, you can do this in a pan on the stove or skip the step entirely, but onions and garlic that are cooked like this provide a better flavor in my opinion.
- Add the onion, carrots, celery and garlic and cook until softened.
- Stir in the taco seasoning and stir until the spices bloom and you can smell them.
- At that point, pour the black beans and ham into the soup pot and stir until incorporated.
- Add the chicken stock and salsa.
- If you're cooking on the stove, cook for 30 to 60 minutes on medium heat stirring occasionally.
- If you're using a slow cooker, cook on high for 2-4 hours, on low for 6-8 hours.
- When you're finished cooking the soup, to thicken, you can either pour all or part of the soup into a blender to blend it to your desired smoothness. You can add a couple of cups to a blender and pour it back in the pot to thicken it but still have texture, or use an immersion blender if you prefer.
- To thicken further, add cream cheese until you reach your desired texture.
Notes
This recipe is great as is, but I also love it with fresh, frozen (cooked) or canned corn added at the end.
Recommended Products
Leftover Hack to stretch your soup even further
Especially if you like thicker soup, you can add a can of refried beans to the soup mixture.
If you only have a cup or two of soup left, you can add refried bean and some cheddar or Oaxaca cheese to make a dip for tortilla chips.
Bon Appetit has a great article about Mexican cheese if you want to learn more.
There is so much more Gluten Free Goodness!
Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates, including shopping lists for our upcoming live videos.
We hate SPAM. We will never sell your information, for any reason.
