Optional, for garnish: lime slices, sliced green onion, tortilla strips or chips, grated cheese, diced avocado, sour cream, fresh cilantro, chopped tomatoes or pico de gallo
Instructions
Place all ingredients in a slow cooker. Cover and cook until beans are tender – approximately 8 hours on LOW or 4 hours on HIGH.
Discard bay leaf. Use a handheld immersion blender (or a regular blender) to puree a portion of the soup, leaving plenty of chunky texture as well. Season with additional salt and pepper, to taste.
Ladle soup into individual bowls and garnish with desired toppings.
Notes
This recipe makes a relatively small batch of soup (about 5 cups total). If you're feeding a larger crowd or if you want more leftovers, double all of the ingredients. The cooking instructions remain the same.
Puree the soup until it reaches your desired consistency. We like to puree about half of the beans and veggies, leaving some chunkier texture throughout. That said, you can make your soup completely smooth by pureeing the entire batch if you prefer.
You don't need to soak the black beans at all for this slow cooker recipe! Just add the rinsed dry beans to the Crock Pot and they will be tender by the end of the day.
Remember that all slow cookers run at slightly different temperatures, so you'll need to adjust the total cooking time to suit your individual needs. You'll know the soup is done when the beans and veggies are tender. In general, this takes about 4-5 hours on HIGH or 8-10 hours on LOW. That said, a Crock Pot that runs hot (like mine) may be done in as little as 3 hours on HIGH.