Here are a couple I have copied and pasted.

Lpink's Black Bean Soup with Red Paprika Sauce
(This is Lori from near the Battle Creek area)
Serves 8
1 lb. bag dried black beans (soak in 4x their volume of water overnight. Drain before cooking)
8 cups water or broth, (I always use broth. For me it's veggie bouillon, but you could use chicken or beef I guess.)
2 med. onions, chopped
2 ribs celery, diced
2 cups chopped tomatoes (I use canned)
2 TBSP paprika (I use Penzey's brand, I have both sweet and hot and I mix the two, but use whatever kind you like to your taste.)
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup cilantro, finely minced (Note: I just add a TBSP or so of dried cilantro or parsley, because I rarely have fresh stuff around, it goes bad on me before I can use it up)
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 cup corn
Note: DON'T add salt while the beans are cooking, this toughens their skins.
Simmer beans in the broth until soft. Could take 1-2 hours on the stovetop. I do my beans in the crock pot on high for about 5 hours minimum, I add the veggies and spices right at the beginning, except for the corn, which I use frozen so it doesn't need to cook.
If you're making the soup on the top of the stove, add veggies and spices during the last hour of cooking. Add sauce (recipe below) before serving. Adjust the seasonings to suit your taste.
Red Paprika Sauce
2 TBS olive oil
1 large red pepper diced or sliced thin
3 scallions, minced
2 tsp. paprika, or less, to taste
2 tsp. salt
2 TBS lime juice

Saut� pepper and scallions in the olive oil. Add the paprika and other seasonings. Add lime juice just before taking it off the stove.
Additonal note: You can add browned turkey sausage to this soup along with the veggies with excellent results. That's how I make it to please the meat-eaters. Use hot or regular sausage, depending on your taste. The soup is delicious served with a dollop of low fat sour cream or yogurt.
You can stir in the sauce to the soup and then freeze. You can leave out the corn, but it is colorful with the red pepper. You can puree some of the soup before adding the veggies or pepper sauce or sausage. It's just a great mixture of flavors however you adapt it. You could even add a little garlic, good for the heart.
I like to make the soup in the crock pot, except for the peppers. Don't cook peppers in a crock pot because they get bitter. I have made this soup for a crowd and it was very well received.
Laurie
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Jayne's Black Bean Soup
(Jayne hails from Indianapolis)
1 pound bag of black beans (soak overnight and rinse very well)
I put them in a crock pot to cook all day.
I add vegetable stock (or water if I don't have the stock).
Then finely chopped garlic, onions, celery and carrot and pepper (green or jalapeno or both).
I usually don't add meat, but sometimes will add small cubes of very lean ham.
I season with salt, pepper and cumin.
I've wanted to try adding sherry (per a friends instruction), but haven't tried that yet. Today, I read a recipe that called for adding balsamic vinegar, but I haven't tried that either.
Near the end of cooking, I take out a cup or so and puree it, then add it back to the pot so it's nice and thick.
I serve it over brown rice, although yellow is good too. I top it with hot sauce and chopped onion. Sour cream sounds good, but I don't need the extra calories (I would have to have a huge dollop).

Angie's (Opkikid) Black Bean Soup
(Angie is from Chicago)

This makes a lot � you can cut the recipe in half or more. This can cook all day at a simmer, if you like.
� lb bacon
10 carrots, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
� tsp cayenne pepper
� cup (yes, cup!) of each: ground cumin and oregano
6 15 oz cans of black beans, drained
5 (20 cups) quarts of chicken broth
� cup sherry or white wine

I saved one that Sol posted, and I have made it quite a few times. I cut the recipe in half, and so here is my version of it:

Cuban Black Beans

1-1/4 cups Black turtle beans
1/2 green pepper diced
1/2 red bell pepper diced
3 quarts water
2 TBSP Extra virgin olive oil
1 ham hock (I used a 1/4 lb hickory smoked bacon) or turkey legs/thighs
1 cup thinly sliced onion
4 garlic cloves minced
3 TBSP tomato paste [I use reconstituted tomato powder]
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground oregano
2 bay leaves cracked
2 tsp salt to taste
1/2 Tsp ground pepper
2 TBSP chopped cilantro (optional)
1/4 cup red wine vinegar

Soak beans. [Boil for two minutes in a large amount of water and then soak covered off heat for one hour.]

Saute olive oil, bacon or ham, onion, diced pepper, and garlic until vegetables are soft. Add to beans, add tomato paste, cumin, oregano, bay leaves, and S&P. Bring to a boil and then simmer until beans are tender and sauce thickens. Serve over rice.

"I soaked the beans in my crock, sauteed the veggies and bacon, threw in the spices and tom paste, then added it to the crock and simmered for 3 hours on high. 10 minutes before serving add 1/2 cup red wine vinegar or lime juice. It was quite good. We frequent a mom & pop Cuban restaurant in Somerville and this ranks right up there with their fare." - Sol's note.

walnutcreek: You made me curious so I googled "black bean soup to die for" and came up with quite a few sites that had those words in the thread. The one was the poster's mother's recipe (had pumpkin in it) and she said it was to die for. I don't know how to link, but the site is Paula's Table. Hope that is the one! Makes me want to try it!

Do you remember any of the ingredients? Anything that made it unique?

Tracey

Thanks to all of you.

It has been so long since I made this, I truly can't remember much of the ingredients. All I can remember is black beans, onions, and maybe rice.

Thanks to all of you.

It has been so long since I made this, I truly can't remember much of the ingredients. All I can remember is black beans, onions, and maybe rice.

My granddaughter wants me to make the soup.

I found this one in Gourmet years ago. I always make it from memory, so it's morphed a bit from the original and I cut down on the beans at some point to make the pumpkin flavor more pronounced. I use a shot of olive oil instead of the butter to saut� the onion and either chicken or beef stock. I also dump all the ingredients into the pot, simmer, then whack it with the immersion blender rather than pureeing the beans first.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pumpkin Black Beam Soup