Black Bean Soup


I absolutely LOVE Panera Bread's black bean soup. The best thing about it is that it's low fat. I searched the internet to try to find their recipe, but I could only find a recipe that someone created to taste like Panera's black bean soup. I found the recipe on recipezaar.com, and I have to say that they did a good job recreating it! Aubrey loved the soup, and we made some cornbread to go with it. The cornbread recipe is also on my blog at this address: http://maryanna-bishop.blogspot.com/2008/02/skillet-cornbread-this-is-best.html.



Ingredients:
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 celery ribs, finely chopped
1/4 large red bell pepper, finely chopped
2 small chicken bouillon cubes
1 and 1/2 cups boiling water
2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, undrained
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 lemon, juice of
1 and 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
Sour cream and cilantro

Directions:
In a pot, combine the first six ingredients; simmer for 10 minutes.
Add half a can of beans, salt and cumin; cook for 5 minutes.
Puree soup (I use an immersion blender which makes it easy to do it right in the pot)... but you can pour it in a blender to puree.
Add the rest of the beans to the soup.
Combine the cornstarch with 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of water.
Pour soup into 4 soup bowls and serve with a scoop of sour cream and sprigs of cilantro.
Add the lemon and the cornstarch to the soup; cook until thickened.

Nutrition Facts per serving (makes 4 servings): 313 calories; 1.3 g fat; 0 mg cholesterol; 312 mg sodium; dietary fiber 19.5 g; 2.1 g sugars; 19.5 g protein