Black Bean Soup

This recipe is an adaptation from a recipe from Real Simple.
It made a good cold winter's night dinner, especially when eaten with lots of warm cornbread.

Ingredients
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tbsp fresh cilantro (or 2 cubes frozen)
2 cups fresh salsa (I used 1cup hot and 1cup medium)
2 15-ounce cans black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 16-ounce can refried black beans
garlic salt, to taste
1/2 cup sour cream (optional)
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped (optional)

Heat the oil in a saucepan or large pot over medium heat. Add the salsa and cook, stirring occasionally, for 4 minutes. Add the refried beans, black beans, and broth and bring to a simmer. Cook until warmed through, about 5 minutes. Ladle into bowls. Top with some of the remaining salsa and the sour cream and cilantro (if using).Yield: Makes 4 servings

Notes:
The next time I make this I might try to swap out 1 cup of salsa for another cup of refried black beans, to give it a slightly less tomato-y base to it. Or maybe just choosing a different style salsa (i.e. black bean and corn, etc) would be a good option too. I like this recipe as it is as well, but was maybe just envisioning something a little black bean-ier in terms of the broth.

NUTRITION PER SERVING: CALORIES 151; FAT 3g (sat 2g); CHOLESTEROL 6mg; CALCIUM 97mg; CARBOHYDRATE 28g; SODIUM 830mg; PROTEIN 9mg; FIBER 10g; IRON 3mg