Slow Cooker Black Bean Soup

I used the Black Bean Ragout recipe from the Smitten Kitchen cook book as inspiration to make this soup. This is a quick low calorie recipe that is great for lunches.

Nutrition Information:
Number of Servings: 6
Serving Size: 206g
Calories: 96.5 Calories

Ingredients: 
1 cup (152g) Dry Black Beans
1/2 (93g) Red Onion - Chopped
1 tbsp Tomato Paste
1 tspn Garlic Paste
1 tbsp Cumin
1 tspn Paprika
1 tspn Dry Oregano
2 tspn Salt
5  cups Water
2 tbsp Lime Juice
2 tbsp Chopped Cilantro

Directions:
Add all the ingredients except for the lime juice and cilantro to the slow cooker. There is no need to soak the beans before hand.

Turn the slow cooker on high overnight (check after about 6-7 hours)

When the beans look like they are fully cooked, turn the slow cooker off. Fish out most of the black beans and add it to a blender and puree the black beans. Return the black bean puree to the soup. This will give the soup some thickness. Alternately you can skip this step if you like full black beans in your soup.

With the heat off, add the cilantro and lime juice and mix.

Additional Toppings:
You can add one or more of the following to your soup as toppings. Any additional topping you add will be extra calories to add to the Nutrition Information shown above. All toppings are for 1 serving size.

Zesty Sour cream - Mix 1 tbsp Sour Cream, a pinch of Salt, a pinch of Cumin, 1/2 tspn chopped Cilantro and a few drops of Lime juice. (20 Calories)

14g Sharp Cheddar Cheese (40 Calories)

4g Southwestern Tortilla Strips (15 Calories)