My husband is a big fan of Chili con carne, I tried making a lighter version with this red bean soup 🙂 .

Time 1h30+

INGREDIENTS
For the soup:

2 cans of 500g red beans: 600g when water taken out
2 roughly diced onions
2 thinly sliced celery stalks
1 very large carrot
1 bell pepper
3 garlic cloves
3 tbsp ghee
110g back bacon sliced diced
2 chopped tomatoes
2/3 can of dices tomatoes
1 Tbsp ground cumin
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve
6 big tsp of sour cream
1 avocado, diced at the last minute + juice of 2 limes
3 spring onions ( green+white), thinly sliced
2 red chillies, seeds removed, very finely chopped (optional)
1 small bunch coriander roughly chopped

METHOD
The soup:

1. Chop the onion, celery carrot and garlic.
2. Heat the ghee over a low heat in a large heavy-based pan.
3. Add the onions, carrots, celery, bell pepper and garlic.
4. Cover the pan and let the vegetables sweat, covered, on a low heat, for 10-15 minutes until they are juicy and tender.
5. Add the beans, all the tomatoes and the cumin and enough water to cover.
6. Bring up to the boil and let boil for 10 minutes.
7. Reduce the heat and simmer gently, half covered, until the beans are very tender. 45 minutes or more.
8. When the beans are tender, add salt and freshly ground black pepper.
9. Let simmer for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon and smashing some of the beans in the pan to obtain a thick soup with some whole beans.
10. At the end of the cooking, you can add more salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
11. The Soup is done.
12. Now prepare the toppings.

The toppings

1. In a small bowl put the chopped coriander
2. In a 2nd bowl put the sour cream
3. In a 3rd bowl put the chopped spring onions
4. Cook the bacon using a pan or the microwave, dice it using a pair of kitchen scissors and put in a 4th bowl.
5. Last minute, in a 5th bowl put the dices avocado with the juice of 2 small limes.
6. In a 6th, optional bowl, put some tortilla chips.

To serve, put the soup and its toppings on the table or set up the soup plates individually as shown on the picture.