Black Bean Vegetable Soup Recipe (and cheesy bean veggie dip for the kids)

We've been getting lots of dried black beans in our CSA box.  We are a bean loving family so this is good news!  I usually buy my beans in a can but dried is even better because it reduces sodium and of course packaging waste.  I found an easy way to make the beans using a crock pot.

Cooking Dried Beans:
1. Measure out 1 pound of beans.  Pick out any stones from the beans and give them a quick rinse.
2. Put beans in a crockpot (slow cooker) with 6 cups of water for each pound of beans.
3. Put the crock pot on high for 4-6 hours.
4. When the beans are done cooking (tender) give them a quick rinse in a colander.  Separate in two cup portions which is about the equivalent of a can of beans.  Freeze to use later.

So easy!  Now onto the soup.  This recipe is also relatively easy and can be adjusted to use whatever veggies you have on hand.

Black Bean Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
1Tbsp Olive Oil
1 onion
red or green peppers (3 small)
1 cup mushrooms
3 cloves of garlic
handful plum tomato or a few cherry/grape tomatoes
3 green onions
3 cups of black beans (1 or 2 cans worth)
3 cups stock (chicken or vegetable) or water
fresh: cilantro, oregano, and thyme
spices:
1 Tbsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
dash red pepper flakes
1 tsp paprika
coriander (to taste)
Salt
Pepper

Directions
1.  Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a pot.  Dice the onion, mushrooms and peppers and add to the pot.
2. While those veggies are sauteing chop the tomatoes and slice the garlic.  Add them to the pot.
3. While those veggies are sauteing chop green onions and fresh herbs.  Add them to the pot.  Add and blend in the spices.
4. Add the black beans.  Add the stock (or water) and simmer for 10 minutes.  We added a lot of stock because we prefer more of a soupy soup.  If you like it thick add more beans and less stock.
Eat!

My daughter is not a fan of spicy and this soup was about medium because of the seasonings.  Instead of making our soup weak I added lots of cheese to hers and made a dip.  Gave her some tortilla chips and she LOVED it.  So we had black bean vegetable soup and she had black bean veggie dip.  Worked great!