Joanie’s Pumpkin Black Bean Soup

Back in 2018, I had a group of vegan friends over for a salad potluck. Everyone was to bring a favorite salad to share. The day before our gathering my friend Joanie sent a message asking if she could bring a pot of soup instead – of course I said yes. She showed up with this amazing Pumpkin Black Bean Soup that was to die for. It was such a nice addition to our salad buffet –  I think we all went back for seconds and ate every last bit of soup. Of course we all requested the recipe and I have been making it on a regular basis for the past month. I almost feel guilty for not sharing the recipe with you sooner because, I know you are going to love it too. It uses simple pantry ingredients and takes only minutes to make in the Instant Pot pressure cooker. What’s not to love about that?

You have no idea how difficult it is to photograph black bean soup! It’s almost impossible to make it look good. Just know that it really does taste delicious. It is such a different flavor because of the unusual combination of allspice, cinnamon and black pepper. It all works perfectly well together with the canned pumpkin which adds fiber, creaminess and flavor.

I have met the nicest people since going plant based. I first met Joanie when she attended one of my whole food plant based cooking classes. She is so much fun to be around – love her positive attitude. She had a knee replacement since I had last seen her and she looked fabulous! While Joanie was recovering from her surgery a friend brought her this soup and kindly shared the recipe. Thank you for passing it on and sharing this wonderful recipes with all of us Joanie.

I like to double this recipe – it fits nicely in the 8 QT Instant Pot. If you have the 6 QT you can double the recipe but hold out 2 cans of beans and add them after it has cooked. Garlic goes well with black bean soup and is really healthy so I add a few cloves of garlic to the recipes as well. With an immersion/stick blender you can blend the soup right in the Instant Pot. Love that. If you want it to have more texture add another can of drained beans after blending the soup.

I like to serve this soup with a beautiful side salad. This Mexican Chopped Salad with Crispy Tortilla Strips is a perfect match.

This Fall Salad With Crunchy Japanese Sweet Potato Croutons is a crowd pleaser and will go nicely with the soup recipe too.

For dessert I mad the simple but fabulous Fall Pudding and topped it with pomegranate seeds.

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Joanie’s Pumpkin Black Bean Soup

Joanie Byrne Aliventi – Nutmeg Notebook

It uses simple pantry ingredients and takes only minutes to make in the Instant Pot pressure cooker. What’s not to love about that?

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Course Main Course

Cuisine Mexican

Servings 4

Equipment

• Pressure Cooker, Immersion blender

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 2 cans black beans rinsed and drained
• 1 can Muir Glen fire roasted diced tomatoes – no salt added
• 1 can pumpkin – 15 ounce
• 1/2 onion chopped
• 4 small garlic cloves – or to taste
• 3/4 teaspoon allspice
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 4 cups low sodium vegetable broth

Garnish

• Balsamic Vinegar to drizzle over the top

Instructions

 

• Set Instant Pot to saute mode, using a small amount of the vegetable broth saute the onion and garlic for 2-3 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients, give it a stir. Put the lid on and set it on high pressure for 5 minutes. Allow natural pressure release. Using an immersion blender, blend to desired consistency. The first time I made this I was using my new immersion blender which is far more powerful than my old one and I over blended it! So then I added an extra can of beans to give it some more body. We liked that so well that I have continued to do that. After the soup is in the bowl drizzle your favorite balsamic vinegar over the top. If you have any of the California Balsamic flavored vinegars use one of your favorites. I like the Sweet Heat on this one. Yum!

Notes

Serving Suggestion: Serve with a big bowl of Chopped Salad on the side. We like to add brown rice or dice cooked potato in the bottom of the bowl before we ladle the soup on top. Then drizzle it with a plain or flavored balsamic vinegar.

Notes: A double batch of this recipe will fit nicely in the 8 qt Instant Pot. If you have the 6 qt Instant pot you can double the recipe but hold out 2 cans of beans and add them after it has cooked. We like to add an extra can of beans after blending just to give the soup a little more body.

Keyword black beans, pressure cooker, pumpkin

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