Pinto Bean Soup

Why We Love This Recipe

• Warm and comforting: This soup is absolutely perfect for a winter weeknight dinner. It's warm, cozy, and oh so delicious.
• Quick and easy: This soup is as easy as prepping the vegetables, adding everything to a pot and letting it simmer. It's definitely weeknight friendly!
• Filling: Unlike some soup recipes that just don't leave you full, this pinto bean soup is a complete meal, especially with some cornbread on the side. It has plant-based protein, carbs (from potatoes) and plenty of vegetables. Plus, you can load it up with toppings!
• Meal prep friendly: Make a big batch of this pinto bean soup and enjoy for quick lunches and dinners all week. You can also freeze it for later use.
• Vegan/vegetarian friendly: This pinto bean soup is naturally free from dairy, so it's a great option for all dietary needs.

Ingredients

Here's what you'll need to make this pinto bean soup:

Ingredient Notes

• Potatoes: We used yukon gold (or yellow) potatoes, which hold their shape nicely and have a buttery flavor and fluffy texture. You can also use russet potatoes, fingerlings, or baby potatoes.
• Vegetable broth: Use a low sodium vegetable broth so that you can better control the salt content in the soup. If you'd like, you can also try this recipe to make homemade vegetable broth from leftover veggie scraps! If you're not vegan/vegetarian, feel free to sub with chicken broth.
• Lime juice: Freshly squeezed, always. All good soups need a hint of acidity to balance out all of the flavor.
• Pinto beans: The star ingredient of this soup! We're using canned pinto beans for this recipe, which we drain but don't rinse.
• Poblano pepper: These are pretty mild, but they add a touch of heat for a more flavorful soup. (Note: they are less spicy than jalapeño.) However, if you are super sensitive to spice, you may want to leave these out or even substitute with a green bell pepper.
• Green onion: You can also sub with regular yellow or white onion.
• Oil: We used avocado oil, which is great for high heat, but you can also use olive oil, vegetable oil or another oil of choice.
• Tomatoes: Fire roasted diced tomatoes add an extra layer of flavor to this soup, but if you can't find any, regular diced tomatoes are fine too.

Instructions

(1) Add oil to a large soup pot over medium heat. Add green onion, poblano pepper, celery, and garlic. Cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring often.

(2) Stir in potatoes, tomato paste, oregano, chili powder, 1 ½ teaspoon of salt, cumin, and coriander and continue cooking for 6-7 minutes. If it starts to dry out/burn, pour in about ¼ cup vegetable broth to deglaze the pot.

(3) Pour in broth, fire roasted tomatoes and lime juice. Bring the soup to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer for 25 minutes.

(4) After 20 minutes, stir in the pinto beans and the cilantro. Continue cooking for 10 minutes. Taste and add up to an additional ¼ teaspoon of salt if desired.

Expert Tips and FAQs

• Stir frequently: While the vegetables are cooking (before adding in the broth), make sure to stir frequently to prevent burning. You can always add in a few tablespoons of the broth early to keep things from drying out.
• Garnish: We love topping this soup with some tortilla strips, cheese and/or sour cream (vegan or regular), diced tomatoes, or avocado. A little extra fresh cilantro is also delicious!
• Storage: Let soup cool to room temperature, then transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for 5 days. Reheat in a small saucepan over medium heat.
• Freezer storage: Let the soup cool completely, then transfer to a freezer safe container and freeze for up to 6 months. To reheat, let the soup thaw in the refrigerator overnight before gently reheating on the stove. 
• Serving suggestions: We recommend serving this soup with warm bread (try our homemade cornbread or garlic bread!) and a light side salad (like our Mexican Street Corn Salad or our Vegan Taco Salad).

More Soup Recipes to Enjoy

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