Refried Bean Soup

I know a lot of people are experiencing ice and snow right now so I thought I’d post a recipe for Refried Bean Soup. This soup is super quick to make and full of flavor, perfect for those chilly days and nights. And the nice thing about it, you probably already the ingredients on hand in your pantry and fridge.

I made this soup several weeks ago when I was getting ready to move. One of the things I like best about moving is the opportunity to purge. This Refried Bean Soup was a result of a quick little purge of my pantry. It’s amazing how much food we have in our house for being empty nesters. I guess I just like to have stuff on hand to avoid frequent trips to the grocery store. But it was time to try to eat up what we had whenever possible and my cans of beans, tomatoes, and chicken stock came in handy!

First I diced up an onion, red bell pepper, a few cloves of garlic and sautéed it in a soup pot. Added some chipotle puree and spices and sauteed a few more minutes. Then dumped in the stock, beans and tomatoes. That’s it! I told you it was super quick and easy! I ate this with cheese quesadillas, but a simple green salad would be a nice to go with it as well.

So open up your pantry on a chilly winter day and see what you can dump into a soup pot for lunch or dinner.

Refried Bean Soup

Ingredients

1 onion, diced
1 red or green bell pepper, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 Tbls. chipotle puree*
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. cumin
2 C. chicken stock
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
1 can refried beans
1 can black or pinto beans (drained and rinsed)

Instructions

In soup pot, saute onions, bell pepper and garlic in a little bit of olive oil, until soft. Add chipotle puree and spices. Saute a bit more to combine. Add chicken stock and tomatoes (undrained), then add refried beans. Bring to boil while stirring to combine refried beans into the soup. Reduce heat, add black or pinto beans and continue to simmer for flavors to meld. You can eat right away if you're in a hurry, or let it simmer 10-15 minutes (good time to make a salad or quesadilla!).

* For the chipotle puree, I blend a can of chipotles en adobo and then freeze it in tablespoon size portions to cook with. You could just chop up a chipotle pepper from the can with a little of the sauce, or just add chipotle pepper spice. Or even chile powder…this recipe is all about using what you have on hand.