Rotel's Mean Black Bean Soup

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons vegetable Oil
• 1/2 cup chopped carrot
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 3 cans (15 oz each) Ranch Style® Black Beans, undrained
• 2 cans (10 oz each) Ro*Tel® Chunky Tomatoes & Green Chilies, undrained
• 1 can (11 oz each) whole kernel corn with red and green peppers, drained
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add carrot, celery and onion; mix well. Cook 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring frequently.
2. Add undrained beans, undrained tomatoes and drained corn; mix well.
3. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in cilantro just before serving.

Notes:  I soaked and cooked a pound of black beans a couple of weeks ago on quiet weekend and froze them to use later.  I also cut up the vegetables when I was making something else, placed them all in a freezer bag so they were also ready to go.  While defrosting the beans in the microwave, sauteed the vegetables in oil (just dumped them in frozen) - still only took about 10 minutes.  Dumped everything else in and heated to a boil.  Since the beans weren't very seasoned, I added 1 tsp of salt.  Reduced to a simmer.  My family isn't big on cilantro, so I just left it out, besides that just meant one less trip to the store.  The entire family loved it and deemed it a make again dish!

Original Recipe found at http://www.ro-tel.com/recipes-Mean-Black-Bean-Soup-2711.html.