Basically Black Bean Soup

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion
• 1 medium carrot
• 3 garlic cloves
• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• ¼ cup red wine vinegar
• 1 7-oz. tin chipotle chiles in adobo, or 2 Tbsp. hot sauce
• 1 lb. dried black beans (not soaked)
• 1½ tsp. dried oregano
• 1 Tbsp. kosher salt, plus more
• 3 limes
• 1 cup whole-milk Greek yogurt
• Cilantro, sliced avocado, crushed Fritos, finely chopped onion, lime wedges, and/or hot sauce (for serving; optional)

Steps

1. Heat ¼ cup oil in a large stock pot or Dutch oven over medium. Add onion, carrot, and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is golden, 5–7 minutes. Don't worry if the veggies start sticking to the bottom of the pan a little bit—that's a good thing! Those little browned bits have a ton of flavor, and we'll be adding some liquid in the next step to get them up, a process that's also called "deglazing." Cool, huh?

2. Add ¼ cup red wine vinegar and cook, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pot, until vinegar is reduced by about half.

3. Add 2 Tbsp. adobo sauce from can of chiles and stir to coat. (Feel free to add more adobo sauce if you're craving more heat and smokiness; just remember: You can always add more later, but you can't take any away.)

4. Add 1 lb. dried black beans, 1½ tsp. oregano, 1 Tbsp. salt, and 8 cups water. That's right: no boxed stock! The beans are going to create their own delicious broth as they simmer away. Bring up to a boil over high heat, then drop the heat down low so that the beans are just simmering. Cover pot with a lid.

5. Simmer, stirring every 30 minutes to prevent sticking, until beans are tender and creamy, 1½–2 hours. How long it takes will depend entirely on how fresh your beans are—the longer they've been sitting on the shelf, the longer they're going to take to cook. That's why we try to buy dried beans from stores where we know their inventory moves. (You can't always tell, but dust on the bag is never a good sign.) As the beans cook, you may need to top off with a bit more hot water if too much of it cooks off; you want to make sure the beans are submerged.

6. Meanwhile, assemble your garnishes. They're going to be the difference between an extremely simple—and delicious!—pot of black bean soup and something that feels fun and kind of fancy. The first thing we're going to make is a kind of creamy lime-yogurt to dollop on top. First, place 1 cup yogurt in a small bowl. Finely grate zest from 1 lime into bowl. Cut the lime in half and squeeze in juice.

7. Season yogurt mixture with salt. Give it a taste and add another pinch of salt if it doesn't pop. Easy, and kind of fancy, non? Cut remaining 2 limes into wedges for squeezing over the soup.