Welcome to my new guest poster, Ben from The Online Grill!

Sometimes you want to host a huge cook-off… and sometimes you just want to throw whatever’s in your kitchen into a pan, serve it up to the family and hope for the best. This chipotle black bean quinoa soup is definitely for the latter.  It’s quick, it’s easy, but boy it’s tasty. Furthermore, it’s healthy and satisfying enough to eat without any need to feel guilty. Plus, it’s gluten-free!

It’s guaranteed to cook up a lovely aroma in your home, so be prepared to win over a few fans with this one. And guess what: It makes for great leftovers.

What’s really great about this recipe is it gives you so much room to tinker and tailor with ingredients according to your taste. I like to add a little bit of low-fat yogurt on top just because I have a bit of a thing about mixing together piping hot things with very cold things, plus the smoothness of the yogurt goes superbly with it. If that isn’t your thing though then you can easily do without, and doing without will make it completely vegan too.
Also, feel free to crank up the spice in this one. Despite me tending to go a bit overboard with other recipes when it comes to spice, I actually tend to dial it down on this one.

Although this recipe is very simple, just bear in mind that due to variations in sizes of crock pots, cooking times for this can differ quite significantly so best to keep an eye on this while it simmers and serve to taste.

Chipotle Black Bean Quinoa Soup

• 2 cans of chopped tomatoes
• 2 cups of water
• 1 cup/200g black beans
• 1 cup/200g red kidney beans
• 1 cup/200g butter beans
• 1 white/green onion, finely chopped
• 1 cup/150g sweetcorn
• 1 red bell pepper, deseeded and chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, deseeded and chopped
• 1 tbsp chipotle chilli paste
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 cup of quinoa, rinsed
• 1 tsp paprika
• 2 jalapeno chilies, deseeded and chopped
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp avocado oil or coconut oil

For the topping:

• Coconut yogurt (or greek yogurt if you’re not dairy free)
• Coriander leaves

Let’s make this!

1. Fill a small saucepan with 1 cup quinoa and 3 cups of water and bring to the boil, then leave to simmer for 20 minutes or until cooked. Drain and then leave to one side.
2. Heat up the oil in a large pan on a medium heat and then add the garlic and onion. Cook for one minute.
3. Add all of the remaining ingredients minus the salt and stir thoroughly. Then leave to simmer for 30 minutes, coming back every few minutes to stir.
4. Serve up equally between bowls, topping off with the yogurt and coriander leaves.

And that’s all there is to it! This chipotle black bean quinoa soup is a beautifully simple recipe and should make the most of a lot of ingredients that you might have lying around in your kitchen anyway (although obviously make sure they’re fresh…)

Please do let me know what you think of this recipe, or if you have a similar recipe that you think I should try!

About The Author

Benjamin is a former semi-professional cyclist who now writes about food and cooking at The Online Grill. From humble beginnings as a inventing cheap student meals while at university, he gets to spend his time writing about food from all over the world.