Black Bean and Lentil Soup
A Southwestern Soup Recipe with a Kick
This black bean and lentil soup is a spicy southwestern soup recipe thrown together with what I had on hand... Delish!
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"OK... black beans, tomatoes and ground turkey on hand... what to make? How about my signature quick chili? Great! Oops... I'm missing all the rest of the ingredients... rethink that plan..." 
This is the conversation I had with myself one evening recently, when I drifted into the kitchen after a long day at the computer to make dinner. I love my chili, but I had to come up with a different thrown together soup recipe when I realized I didn't have all the ingredients on hand to make the traditional chili.
A few veggies, some spices and a canister of lentils later, I had a flavorful pot of soup going. And here's the recipe...
Black Bean & Lentil Southwestern Soup
Ingredients:
1 can black beans, drained/rinsed
1 can Rotele tomatoes (or any diced tomatoes)
1/2 cup dried lentils
1 onion, chopped
6 cups beef or chicken broth
1 tsp each coriander & cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
5 or 6 brown mushrooms, rough chop
1 pound ground turkey (or less)
1 can beer
Handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
Grated cheese/sour cream for garnish
Directions:
First, heat the broth to boiling and add rinsed lentils, along with half the chopped onion. Let simmer for 10 minutes or so until lentils begin to soften. Meanwhile, cook the rest of the onion and the garlic in a frying pan sprayed with olive oil spray, until softened. Season with salt/pepper to taste. Add the ground turkey and continue to cook and stir until turkey loses its pink color and the veggies are softened. Next, add about 1/3 of the beer and turn the heat up to deglaze the pan.
When the beer has cooked down, empty the frying pan into your soup pot with the lentils. Relubricate the frying pan and then cook the pepper and mushrooms until browned and softened; deglazing with another 1/3 of the beer. Add that mixture, the black beans, the rest of the beer and the tomatoes into the soup pot and cook for 5 to 10 minutes more until everything is hot and the lentils are soft enough to eat.
Thrown in the cilantro and cook for 1 more minute. Taste and correct any seasonings. Serve with nacho chips and garnish the soup with grated cheese and sour cream as desired.
We liked this, but it did come out a bit too spicy. Might have been the Rotele I used. Next time, though I like heat, we will make it a bit less hot. It was yummy though, for a thrown together concoction!
Variations
- Substitute vegetable broth for the meat broth
- Use ground beef or pork, rather than ground turkey
- Add in corn to the mix
- Substitute other legumes for the black beans and/or lentils
- Leave out the beer... or substitute wine
- Use whatever veggies you have on hand
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