The perfect soup to warm you up on cold days.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb dehydrated black beans
• 4 slices of bacon cut into 1/2 inch squares (smoked bacon is best)
• 3 garlic cloves, finely diced
• 1 large tomato chopped
• 1 large green chili chopped (or a small can of diced chilies)
• 2 whole dried chipotle peppers
• 1 cup of diced peppers (Bell peppers for no extra heat, otherwise you pick your mix, cooking will bring out the heat)
• 6 cups pork or chicken broth
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tbsp red wine vinager
• 1 can of canned black beans
• 1 tbsp corn flour
• Salt & pepper to taste.

Directions:

The night before, sort your dehydrated beans, make sure there are no stones or pods or stems from packaging. Hey, it happens.

Add enough water to cover your beans plus 3 to 4 inches extra water. Add a teaspoon of baking soda to cut down on “belly gas” after eating. Let sit overnight.

1. The next morning rinse your beans and put in a large crockpot.
2. In a large frying pan cook your bacon until cooked but not crumbly.
3. Remove bacon from pan.
4. Add your onion, garlic, green chili and peppers to the bacon grease and saute until your onion is starting to become translucent.
5. Add your bacon & vegetables to the crockpot.
6. Add your diced tomato to the crockpot.
7. Add your dehydrated chipotle peppers to the crockpot.
8. Add your broth & red wine vinager to the crockpot & stir.
9. Cook on high for 4-5 hours.
10. Once the beans in your soup are soft, put your canned black beans in a bowl and mash them.
11. Add the corn flour to the mashed beans and mash together until well mixed.
12. Add the mashed beans and corn flour to your crockpot stirring so the mashed beans don’t clump creating little bean dumplings.
13. Add in your seasonings: cumin, chili powder, black pepper and salt.
14. Cook on low for another 30 minutes.

Serve with cornbread & enjoy.

This soup can be pressure canned for shelf safe future use. Pressure Can as you would for meats.

Until next time,

Mrs. Kay Rice