Vegetarian Black Bean Soup

My mom makes the best black bean soup. She starts with a ham bone, makes her own stock...it's great. It's a nice, thick and flavorful soup. Since I don't feel like cooking an entire ham (and nicole has that whole issue with pork), I decided to try a veggie recipe of it (hence making the vegetable stock). My mom starts with dry beans, but for this first attempt I just went for canned.

Ingredients

• vegetable broth
• 2 cans of black beans
• 1/2 a medium onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 hot pepper
• 1/2-1 cup of bell peppers
• 1 carrot
• 1 stalk of celery
• 1 piece of soy bacon (Morningstar Farms is what I used)
• cilantro
• cayenne
• cumin
• chili powder

I sauteed the onions, garlic, hot pepper, and bell peppers in a little oil. I chopped up the fake bacon and cooked it in the veggies. I chopped up the carrots and celery and added them to the mix (I used the ones from the vegetable stock since they were really soft which decreased the cooking time). I added the black beans and heated the mixture; I then added about 2 cups of vegetable stock. I added a few dashes of cumin, cayenne, and chili powder and then a handful of chopped cilantro. I let this cook for 30 - 60 minutes (I was on the phone asking my mom about her black bean soup at the time).

I pureed the mixture in the blender until it was smooth.