Black Bean and Sausage Soup

I have been loving introducing dry beans into my regular meal plans during the week. I used to think it was too hard to plan ahead and soak beans overnight.

What if I forget about them? What if I change my mind and don't want to cook _____ tomorrow night, what do I do with all these beans now? I want to make something now but I needed to pre-soak beans last night? Ugh! etc...

But, there are some simple recipes that I have found that used the quick soak method (which I love) and still make delicious meals fast.

Craving something with black beans and what I had in the house, I made a VERY yummy soup, Black Bean and Sausage.

I seriously ate this soup for lunch and dinner for two days straight! It was that good.

Black Bean and Sausage Soup

1 cup dry black beans
2 cups chicken broth (homemade is best)
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
4 garlic cloves, finely minced
8 oz or 1/2 lb ground sausage

1. Rise beans and pick over them, removing any beans that are broken or wrinkled. In a deep pot, combine beans and 6 cups of water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Let simmer for 2 mins then remove from heat and cover. Let stand for an hour (do not remove the lid the entire time, heat will escape while beans are still cooking).

2. Drain and rinse beans, return to same pot (no need to get a new pot), Stir in 2 cups of water, broth, celery, onions, garlic, salt and red pepper.

3. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered 1 1/2 hours or until beans are tender.

4. Halfway through cooking (45 mins), brown the sausage and crumble as fine as you can. Add to the soup, stir and continue cooking another 30-45mins.

5. Serve and enjoy.

Don't be afraid of dry beans. They save you money. Contain less salt then canned beans and only require a bit more of your time to make these kind of hearty dishes.

Calories Calculated using Sparkrecipes Calculator: 107 calories per 1 1/2 cup serving