I make something like this maybe twice a month in winter, it was inspired by Becca’s Black Bean Soup, but I’ve never really followed an exact recipe and always use what I have, which with the exception of the carrots and peppers comes from the freezer. It’s not quite a soup and not quite a stew, you could blend it to make it smoother and/or add more water to make it soupier. It doesn’t look very pretty but it tastes really good.

I eat a lot of beans, nowadays and very rarely buy tins of them, instead, I buy dried beans, soak them overnight and then cook them in the slow cooker for 4 to 8 hours (it really depends on the beans and how old they are!). Once cooked I weigh them into freezer bags of roughly 200g to 240g, so about the weight of a tin of beans, and bung them in the freezer ready to use. I usually have black beans, pinto beans and chickpeas in the freezer ready to go. I do the same with refried beans, making a big batch and dividing them up into ‘can size’ (about 200g) for use in this soup or bean beer stew. I’m pretty sure that you could leave them out entirely and I know that you could just buy a can of refried beans and dump them in too. I generally always have frozen corn, peas, cauliflower and spinach the freezer, which is what makes this so easy to make.

I get about 4/5 servings. lots of vegetables and don’t have to think to hard about cooking, win/win..

Freezer Soup

480g frozen black or pinto beans

8 chunks frozen spinach

1 bag frozen (or one tin) refried beans

1 400g tin chopped tomatoes

2 to 3 grated carrots

1 red, yellow or orange pepper (don’t use green ones they’re horrible!)

1 teaspoon cumin

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

How

Throw it all in the slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4