A Recipe from Alejandro

Alejandro gave me simple recipe for black bean soup that is very good.  It's his own invention, not a recipe from his mom.

All you need is a can of black beans (I use organic, low sodium beans), a can of chicken broth (also lower sodium broth), a can of diced tomatoes (I buy Mexican-style diced tomatoes with jalapeños, although that made the soup perhaps too spicy for some peoples' tastes), white onion, dried epazote (a Mexican herb which you can probably find at any Hispanic grocery store), salt and olive oil.  Cotija cheese and Mexican crema (or sour cream) are used as a garnish.

(I used for the first time a new blender which I recently bought.  I figured that it was time to retire my mother's Oster blender which had to be more than fifty years old.  By the way, this new Oster blender is made in Mexico... the only one I saw that was not made in China.)

First of all, blend the can of tomatoes (undrained) with one half of the broth and one quarter of the raw onion.

In a large skillet, fry one quarter of an onion in oil until it becomes caramelized.  Then discard the onion.  (Actually, I munched on the onion while continuing the recipe.  It was very tasty.)  Alejandro says that the purpose of this step is to flavor the oil.

Fry the tomato and broth mixture in the hot oil.  Alejandro says to put a couple spoonsful into the skillet first before pouring the rest of the mixture.

In the blender mix the can of beans (drained) and the rest of the chicken broth.

Add that mixture to the skillet and bring it all to a boil.  Season with epazote.  Remove the skillet from the heat, and then add salt to taste.  

Ladle the soup into bowls (it makes 3 to 4 servings), and sprinkle with cotija cheese.  I did not have any sour cream or Mexican crema, but you should put a dollop of that in the middle.

I'm thinking that some tortilla strips, maybe even some slices of avocado, would also make nice garnishes, and would be a fancier presentation if you are inviting guests for dinner.

¡Buen provecho!