Black Bean Soup

Okay so this soup actually turned out really great, so different and totally not what I was expecting. I found the recipe on someone's blog (sorry can't remember where!) it didn't have a picture so I didn't know what to expect, but I thought I would give it a whirl! And I am glad I did! It made lots (maybe because I always add more than what's called for) so I froze it and heated it up on a day when I didn't feel like cooking. If you do the same, serve half of it and pour the other half in a freezer bag, lay it flat to freeze, and once it's frozen, you can stand it up right and store lots of frozen entrees like little books in your freezer!

Ingredients

1 large yellow onion, chopped

1 large green bell pepper, chopped

4 stalks celery, chopped

2 cans black beans

1 jar salsa

3 cups vegetable broth

1/2 cup barley or couscous

2 cups frozen corn

2 shredded carrots

2 tsp. cumin

4 tsp. fresh lime juice

2 cloves garlic, minced

Directions:

In a large pot, drizzle your grape seed oil, saute your onion, green pepper, celery and garlic for about 5 minutes, turning every once in a while. While that is cooking, drain 1 can black beans and dump them in the pot and add 1 can of black beans to your blender and puree until smooth and dump that in as well. Next, add your salsa, veggie broth, barley (I used whole wheat couscous cause that's what I had on hand), carrots, corn, cumin, and lime juice. Stir everything together, bring to a boil, and cover on low to simmer for 30 minutes.