Black Bean Soup with Lime & Cumin

Ingredients

• 2 x 400g tins black beans, drained and rinsed
• 900 ml chicken stock
• Warm tortillas, to serve
• 2 roasted red peppers, drained from jar, roughly chopped
• salt and black pepper
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1.5 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 large onion, finely diced
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 red chilli, finely chopped
• Soured cream, to serve
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 150 g cooking chorizo, sliced into rounds
• 2 limes, 1 juiced, 1 cut into wedges to serve
• 15g fresh coriander, roughly chopped

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a heavy pot over a medium-high heat. Add the chorizo and cook for 3–4 minutes, stirring, until the edges are golden and the rich orange-red oil has run out into the pan — that oil is the foundation of the soup. Lift the chorizo out with a slotted spoon and set aside.
2. Tip the onion into the chorizo oil with a good pinch of salt and cook over a medium heat for 7–8 minutes until soft, translucent and just starting to catch at the edges. Stir in the garlic, chilli, cumin and smoked paprika and bloom for 60 seconds until fragrant — raw spices taste dusty, bloomed spices taste of themselves. Watch the garlic closely; 30 seconds past pale gold and it turns bitter, and bitter garlic ruins the whole pot.
3. Add the roasted red peppers and stir through, pressing them gently against the base of the pot for 2–3 minutes so they soften and melt into the aromatics rather than sitting on top.
4. Tip in the black beans, red lentils and bay leaf, then pour over the chicken stock. Bring to a gentle boil, drop the heat and simmer uncovered for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the lentils have collapsed and the soup has thickened to a loose, glossy body.
5. Fish out the bay leaf. Ladle about a third of the soup into a jug and blend until smooth, then stir it back into the pot — that gives you a thick, velvety base with plenty of whole beans left for texture.
6. Return the chorizo to the pot, stir in the lime juice and half the coriander, and simmer for 5 minutes more to let everything settle together. Taste, season with salt and black pepper, taste again — it should be smoky, gently spiced and bright with lime. Adjust now, not at the table.
7. Ladle into warm bowls, swirl a spoonful of soured cream through each, scatter over the remaining coriander, and tuck a lime wedge against the side of the bowl for squeezing at the table.