If you want an easy YUM...

A simple crowd pleaser

One of the biggest issues for me with becoming vegan was handling those nights where you just don't have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen.  I needed some easy go-to meals.  A secondary problem for me was having something I could make big batches of for large crowds that wrinkled their nose at my tofu and veggie eating ways.  This dish covers both issues.  

I found this dish at All Recipes, which had during my omni days been my go to place for new recipes to try.  All recipes has such a huge user base that it is quite easy to tell what recipes are more likely to be a keeper.  You can search based upon ingredients, dish types etc or just type in a familiar name of a dish and you'll get tons of results.  Sort those results by rating and you'll find a high potential dish.  When you see a recipe has 4/5 stars and has 1100 + ratings it's pretty safe to assume if you like it's components you'll like the dish. 

Black Bean and Salsa Soup

Yum!  Most of the flavor for this dish will come from the salsa you choose- so choose wisely, do not choose an extremely watery salsa.  The choice of salsa also determines the amount of heat- so if you have kids choose accordingly.  You can divide this soup into two batches if you don't mind the extra dishes to create two different heats or just kick up your bowl with some cayenne hot sauce.  For our family a mix between medium and mild works best and our soup topper is Better Than Sour Cream, not actual sour cream.  Using the "sour cream" does really add to the flavor so I wouldn't skip it unless you really don't like it. I normally throw all of the ingredients into a pot, bring it to a boil and then let it simmer about an hour.  I think the flavors merge more this way.  When I'm ready, I take my immersion blender to it and smooth it out- if you do not currently own an immersion blender buy one- it is worth the 20 bucks.  If you don't own one you're stuck waiting for the soup to cool down enough to stick small batches in your blender.

I serve this soup with another recipe I found on the web.  Trust me - you need bread to dip into this soup to fully enjoy it! Check out the Vegan Challah Bread Recipe for my favorite pairing!

I use Simple Truth Organic Vegetable Broth, Simple Truth Organic Black Beans and Pace Medium Chunky Salsa (unless I get up to whole foods).  The Following Nutrition is for the soup alone with the ingredients I just stated.  Nutrition does not include the Better Then Sour Cream I top it with....

Nutrition Facts
4 Servings
Amount Per Serving
Calories		238.8
Total Fat		0.0 g
	Saturated Fat	0.0 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	0.0 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	0.0 g
Cholesterol		0.0 mg
Sodium		905.0 mg
Potassium		0.0 mg
Total Carbohydrate		42.5 g
	Dietary Fiber	10.8 g
	Sugars	6.1 g
Protein		13.3 g

Vitamin A	2.0 %
Vitamin B-12	0.0 %
Vitamin B-6	0.0 %
Vitamin C	6.0 %
Vitamin D	0.0 %
Vitamin E	0.0 %
Calcium	9.0 %
Copper	0.0 %
Folate	0.0 %
Iron	19.5 %
Magnesium	0.0 %
Manganese	0.0 %
Niacin	0.0 %
Pantothenic Acid	0.0 %
Phosphorus	0.0 %
Riboflavin	0.0 %
Selenium	0.0 %
Thiamin	0.0 %
Zinc	0.0 %

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.