Black Bean & Italian Sausage Soup

Ingredients

• 3 slices bacon, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped in medium sized pieces
• 4 Italian sausages, removed from casings, broken up
• 2 small yellow peppers or orange peppers, chopped
• 4 cups chicken stock (I used 900ml container-low salt)

• 2 (14 ounce) cans black beans or black soybeans, drained and rinsed
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• salt, pepper, pepper flakes
• left over rice or pasta (*optional-see note below)

Directions

1. 1

   In a large soup pot on medium heat, fry the bacon bits to get some fat to coat the bottom of the pan.

2. 2

   Add the garlic powder, chopped onion, chopped peppers, and Italian sausage broken up into chunks. Fry on medium heat until the sausage is no longer pink.

3. 3

   Add the chicken stock, 1/2 tsp of cumin and one can of black beans. Simmer covered for 30 minutes.

4. 4

   Use an immersion blender to blend some of the soup so that there are still lots of unblended chunks--about 10-15 seconds on high.

5. 5

   Add the other can of drained, rinsed beans and 1/2 tsp of cumin.

6. 6

   Season with salt, pepper and/or pepper flakes if you like it spicy.

7. 7

   Simmer for another 10 minutes.

8. 8

   *Serve with a dollop of sour cream if desired. I also serve it over a couple of tablespoons of leftover rice or pasta in each bowl to make it a hearty meal.