Black Bean Soup

The wife and I do a lot of meatless days during Lent.  But there is only so much pizza, pancakes, and tuna fish sandwiches you can have.  SO we started looking into making some high protein vegetarian soups and stews.  After a few tweaks to some black bean soup recipes, this is our current go to.  We do it in the Instant Pot, which makes it fast enough she can turn on the pressure when I leave work and we're eating by the time I get home.

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp canola (or another vegetable) oil
• 1 medium onion - diced
• 1 large carrot - diced
• 1 bell pepper - diced
• 2 stalks celery - diced
• 1 lb dried black beans
• 5 cloves of garlic - minced
• 4 tsp chili powder
• 1.5 tsp ground cumin
• 1.5 tsp oregano
• 1tsp kosher salt
• 2 bay leaves
• juice from one lemon
• 4 cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock if you prefer)
• 2.5 cups water
• 1/2 cup Goyo Mojo Criollo*

Instructions

1. Set Instant Pot to saute.  Add oil, onion, carrot, pepper, and celery and saute until onions turn clear.
2. Add remaining ingredients and lock lid. 
3. Cook on high pressure for 1 hour
4. Let natural pressure release for 10 minutes, then you may rapidly release pressure.
5. Scoop out half of the beans and set aside.
6. Take a stick blender and process remaining soup in the pot until smooth. Return saved beans to pot and stir in.
7. Serve and enjoy

* - This isn't required but I found it added a lot of good flavors.  If you don't have on hand, you can replace with water.