The Lunchbox is the New Clutch

Recession Girl’s Most Fantastic Black Bean Soup

5 cans black beans, drained (or 1 bag dried black beans,* soaked overnight and drained)
7 cups vegetable broth (you can use vegetable bouillon cubes - 1.5 cubes to each cup of water)
4 stalks celery, chopped into smallish pieces
1 medium sized onion, chopped
1 head spinach
2 dried chili peppers
4 carrots, cut into coins (but not too thin)
5 cloves garlic
1 tblspoon basil, oregano
olive oil
lemon
cilantro
2 avocados

sauté garlic and onion in olive oil for about 10 ten minutes (which means olive shouldn’t be too hot and you should be stirring regularly). Add onion, sauté for about 3 minutes; add celery, sauté for about 1 minute. Add black beans and vegetable broth, oregano, basil, chili peppers. Bring to boil and then simmer for 1.5 hours if using canned beans and 2.5 hours if using “formerly” dried beans. Serve hot, top with a squeeze of lemon, a few slices of avocado and some bits of chopped cilantro.

*Recessiongirl’s “make it cheap” tip: use dried black beans – they are much less expensive than canned and all you need to do to prepare is soak them overnight and cook for just a bit longer. This is a great tip to save some pennies – soak beans, and then freeze them in their water until you need them!

If you have extra avocado, make sure you store it with some extra lemon - keeps it fresh.

Buen provecho!