Black Bean and Hot Link Soup

 

Today we took our usual Saturday long walk, but it was SO cold out we needed to warm up when we came home.  Since I still had a lot of hot links in the freezer due to the last Costco run, I decided to make a black bean and hot link soup.  This one is hearty, spicy, somewhat healthy and will warm you up.  
 
This soup started from a very spicy vegetable stock that I made last week (don't worry you can use canned stock).  Often times I will simmer lots of veggies trimmings and make stock, this day I added the cores of the jalapenos... so essentially the seeds.  After about 10 minutes of simmering, I tasted the stock and almost blew the top of my head off!  Immediately, I fished the two jalapeno "cores" out of the stock, hoping it would not get any hotter.  I was left with stock that I couldn't use for my mushroom soup, so I put it in the fridge to consider what to make. It was perfect for this one, so I didn't add the jalapeno that I included below.


You could serve this with a little creme fraiche (or sour cream) and some cornbread on the side!  I have two favorite cornbread recipes, Sweet & Spicy Cornbread or Good Ole Basic Cornbread. I love to make a batch of soup on the weekends and save some for the week's lunches.

This soup was finished in just about 35 minutes, but would be good to do in a crockpot and simmer on low for the day.
 

Makes about 8-10 cups
Ingredients

1 cup onions, diced small
1 cup celery, diced small
1/2 cup carrots, diced or sliced thinly
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno, minced (optional) 
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
3 cans black beans, drained (2 are shown, but I did use 3)
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
2 hot links, sliced and diced
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
4 cups beef, or vegetable stock 
Salt & Pepper, as needed 

Saute the onions, celery, carrots and garlic in the olive oil for about 3-4 minutes over medium high heat.  Add the black beans, tomatoes, spices, hot link and beef stock.  Simmer over medium heat for 25-30 minutes.  If you want some thickness to the soup, smash some of the beans with a tomato masher.

Serve and enjoy!

Here it is just before I added the stock and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.