Veggie-Packed Slow Cooker Black Bean Soup
A hearty, healthy slow cooker black bean soup that’s packed with vegetables, and only takes a few minutes to prepare!
If you want a hearty, healthy dinner, but you don’t want to actually have to spend more than 5 minutes making it (I feel you), this slow cooker black bean soup is the answer to your prayers. It’s packed with veggies, and practically cooks itself. Just chuck everything in the slow cooker, and a few hours later, it’s ready to eat. Hallelujah!
Summer slow cooking
I don’t often think to use my slow cooker at this time of year. Slow cookers are obviously great for cooking wintery vegetarian stews and hearty casseroles – but there’s no reason you can’t enjoy slow cooked food in the warmer months too.
This black bean soup is great year-round. In the winter, you can make it extra hearty with some melted cheese and crusty bread and butter. Or, in the summer, keep things light by topping it with some extra veggies and a dollop of sour cream.
Slow cooker black bean soup
Black bean soup is one of my favourite soups of all time, and this slow cooker version checks every single box.
- It’s full of healthy, whole ingredients like fresh vegetables and beans.
- It’s completely delicious, with heaps of flavour.
- It’s a great fridge clearer, and can easily be adapted to use whatever veg you have lingering in the fridge.
- It’s very low effort, and cooks itself in the slow cooker.
- It reheats beautifully, if you have any leftovers.
- It can be personalised with your own choice of toppings.
I’ve never had a more perfect soup.
Veggie-packed soup
The soup begins with the vegetables.
I like to chop the veg fairly small (I even grate the carrots), and they cook down so much that they become almost invisible in the finished soup. If you’re trying to hide the vegetables – either from picky kids, or just from yourself – it’s perfect. And if you’d prefer a chunkier soup with bigger pieces of veg, just don’t cut them as finely.
Hiding in this black bean soup, there are two big carrots, a huge handful of spinach, and a whole red pepper. They bring extra flavour and goodness to the soup, without putting off any veggie-haters.
Refried bean soup
Next up, add the black beans, and a tin of chopped tomatoes. I also love to add a tin of refried beans. I’m obsessed with these things – they may look like cat food when you first open the tin, but they’re unbelievably tasty, and they help to make the soup extra thick and creamy.
Make sure your refried beans are vegetarian, if necessary. In the UK, I’ve never seen non-veggie ones, but I’ve heard that elsewhere, they can contain lard, so just make sure you check before you buy. The Old El Paso refried beans* are my favourite ones on the planet. I could eat them straight from the tin (in fact, I regularly do…).
Or you can use homemade refried beans instead, if you prefer!
When you’ve added all the ingredients to your slow cooker, just give it a good mix, and it’s ready to go.
Slow cooker soup
This slow cooker black bean soup is pretty forgiving. It doesn’t really matter how long you cook it for – anything from 5 to 7 hours will be totally fine (or even a little longer), so just serve it up whenever is convenient for you.
Obviously the longer you cook it, the richer it will be, and the more the vegetables will have cooked down – so I’d err on the side of slightly longer, if you have the time.
When it’s ready, it should look a little bit like this.
Chunky vs smooth soup
I left my black bean soup chunky, because that’s how I like it, and seeing little flecks of green and red vegetables in my soup doesn’t put me off (considering I put the vegetables in myself, it would be a bit odd if it did).
However if you really want to deny the vegetables’ very existence (or you just like a smooth and creamy soup), you could always blend your soup before serving so that nobody suspects a thing.
I actually blended up my kids’ portions, and it worked really well as a smooth soup, too. The beans make it nice and thick, so just add a splash more water if you prefer a thinner soup.
Soup toppings
You know I love a good topping, especially with Tex-Mex style food. This black bean soup is absolutely perfect for topping!
The soup itself is vegan, but you can add whatever toppings you fancy. Here are a few ideas:
- melted grated cheese
- sour cream
- fresh coriander (cilantro)
- sliced spring onions
- crushed tortilla chips
- diced avocado
Can I reheat the leftovers?
Since it’s already been cooked to oblivion, this black bean soup is just as good reheated the next day. It’s the perfect thing to make in batches, to last you a few days for lunch.
If it were me, I’d pop some cheese on top before you reheat it, and it’ll get nice and melty. The perfect black bean soup.
More Black Bean Recipes
Veggie-Packed Slow Cooker Black Bean Soup
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Print Pin CommentIngredients
- 2 medium carrots, grated
- 1 red pepper, diced
- 1 large handful spinach, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 x 400g tins black beans, drained (480g, or ~ 2 1/2 cups, when drained)
- 400 g tin (~ 1 1/3 cups) chopped tomatoes
- 435 g tin (~ 1 1/3 cups) refried beans (spicy or mild)
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 2 tsp hot chilli powder optional
- 200 ml (~ 3/4 cup) water
- Optional toppings: chopped fresh coriander (cilantro), grated cheese, crumbled tortilla chips, sour cream, etc.
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients (apart from your toppings) into the slow cooker, and mix well. Cook for at least 5 hours on high (longer is also fine).
- You can blend the soup before serving (add a splash more water if it ends up too thick), or leave it chunky. Add your chosen toppings to serve.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is approximate, and will depend on your exact ingredients. Please calculate your own nutritional values if you require accuracy for health reasons.
This recipe looks delicious! Does anyone know if I use dry black beans if I would need to cook them first or simply pre-soak? It seems like an overnight soak and then 8 hours in the slow cooker would do it, but I’d hate to find out they’re still hard when it’s ready to eat.
In my exerance you need to cook the beans first. If you don’t cook them all they way first, don’t add anything acidic until the beans are tender.
i just got a slow-cooker and i have been looking for recipes, perfect!
I love a good chili recipe and that looks ridiculously good! Great job :)
Happy Blogging!
Happy Valley Chow
I live for my slow cooker this time of year. I’m definitely going to have to try this recipe!
Hi Becca, really like that you chose to do a slow cooking recipe. I see that most people think slow cooking is for meat! In also love that you chose black beans, they have such a deep flavour so are clearly perfect for your method of cooking! I recently shared an unusual black bean recipe, I hope that you will take a look x
I love black beans they’re very expensive canned in Australia so I always soak and cook them from scratch but I kind of obsessed with them. This looks like a lovely soup and super quick with the canned beans.
Where’s the corn?
What do you mean – what corn?
Sounds delicious :D I’m seriously wanting a slow cooker. how big is yours? any tips on buying.. ? Also, where are you getting black beans from? I can never find them. gorgeous photography as usual!
Mine’s 3.5l – it’s this one: http://goo.gl/daK0dl
It’s the perfect size for me – I’m usually just cooking for me and my fiance so that size will do two meals for the two of us (4 portions). Also most slow cooker recipes are soups and stews and things that can be frozen if you’re just cooking for yourself, so I’d recommend that size :) plus it’s red and pretty haha. If you can force yourself to put a few tins of stuff in at like 11pm, it’s a great thing to wake up to :)
I get my black beans from Asda in the ‘world foods’ section. Not sure where else you can get them, ridiculous isn’t it!
I am having a hard time figuring out how much 40g of spinach is in US measurements, so if you have idea I would love it if you would share it! Thanks!
http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/conversions.html
I love, love, love black beans! So I am definitely going to try this recipe! I will have to go and figure out what the measurements are in grams compared to cups since I don’t know how to switch this to US measurements. Thanks for all your wonderful recipes!
To be honest this particular recipe doesn’t really need much measuring :) just two carrots, a couple of big handfuls of spinach, and the 400g tins are just the normal size (like this size) :) hope you like it!
sorry, didn’t see your reply! you are fast!
Haha no worries ;) yeah I’d just go with a couple of handfuls, maybe a couple of cups if you want to do it that way? I don’t really know how cups work tbh haha, do you pack it down or not? Anyway it doesn’t really matter either way, just use however much you have on hand ;)
I made this tonight – I didn’t use the crock pot though. It was delicious! And I even forgot to put the toppings on!
Haha noooo the toppings are the most exciting bit! ;) glad you enjoyed it though! :D
I was happy to see this comment – could you tell me how you adapted the recipe so as to make it without a slow cooker/crock pot, and with just an ordinary (oval-shaped) large stew pot?
I am essentially new to cooking in general and I’ve never made a soup in my life, so I really appreciate any idiot-proof instructions you or anyone else can offer! (My repertoire of similar recipes includes chili and beef stew, but never soup!) THANK YOU!
Hey Gabi :) A slow cooker is basically just a big, slow pot, so you can do exactly the same thing on the hob and just cook it a little quicker. So I’d still just stick everything in your pot together, bring it to a gentle simmer with a lid on, and then simmer it for half an hour or so until the veg are cooked, stirring it every now and then so that it doesn’t stick on the bottom. The only reason I used the slow cooker was because it’s marginally less effort (you don’t need to stir it as much, for example), but it’s basically the same process!
Phew, okay great! I have the tiniest kitchen and I truly don’t have any room for investing in new appliances that take up space (as tempting as they are, since they make cooking in bulk so easy!)
P.S. Your blog is so great! I arrived here this past May after a friend on Facebook happened to share your avocado risotto recipe – I have made that a few times now and I love it! Now I’m finally getting around to scrolling through all your other recipes and I’m very excited to try this one out soon! I’m not vegetarian and in fact it’s a HUGE struggle for me to integrate vegetables into my diet (it’s a texture thing), so I love the fact that a lot of your recipes are on the cheesier/starchier side, haha :) Whatever works as a gateway, right?? Thanks again!!
Hahaha I do try to be healthy I swear, the cheese just always calls my name ;) I’m glad you like the risotto, it’s one of my favourites too! :) thanks Gabi!