Super Simple Black Bean Soup I Learned From a Cuban Neighbor at the Beach

Super simple tasty soup. Five Ingredients only, you probably already have them.

Course: Soup

Cuisine: Cuban

Keyword: black bean, easy, simple salad, soup

Servings:

Author: Neighbor in Indian Rocks Beach a million years ago

Ingredients

1 can black beans Or two cups of juicy black beans you cooked in the Instant Pot (see notes below)
1/2 cup white onion minced as tiny as you possibly can
2 T white vinegar Store brand, generic, whatever, basic basic white vinegar
Himalayan mineral salt (or your favorite sea salt) to taste
black pepper to taste

Instructions

A few years ago on Facebook one of my friends (of limited cooking skills) asked the internet for a simple recipe to use a random can of black beans he'd found in his pantry. Our mutual friends delivered up a bunch of links to super fussy annoying recipes that gave me a headache reading (and I like to cook... and am pretty good at it too). Predictably, my friend felt overwhelmed. Fortunately I posted this exact recipe on his page - he tried it and liked it.
I've been told it's fairly traditional, and I'm sure that there are very delicious very elaborate versions of it that my Cuban neighbor's granny made that are just amazing. However, if you've got these 5 ingredients handy, congrats, you're already 2/3 of your way towards a simple hearty soup that goes well with a big salad covered in chunks of ham, chicken, and cheese!
Ok! Add the entire contents of the can of beans to a small saucepan. If using home cooked beans, be sure to add plenty of juice - think "thick soup". Bring to a boil very briefly then bring it down to a simmer.
Add 2-3 tablespoons of the white vinegar, the salt (if you're using canned beans, be careful, it's easy to make this too salty), and pepper. Stir and simmer for a few more minutes (I usually start mincing the onion during this part).
Pour the beans mixture into 2 bowls and top with the finely minced onions. YUM and easy.

Notes

Check out this method for cooking a whole lot of black beans in the Instant Pot! Canned beans work well for two servings of this recipe, but you can make a ton of this soup using the black beans made in the Instant Pot method!