Venezuelan Black Bean and Chorizo Soup

A Venezuelan style black bean soup where the slightly sweet soup is perfectly complemented by the spicy chorizo sausage!

The recipe pretty much wrote itself, being a standard black bean and chorizo soup with the addition of molasses and a bit of brown sugar to sweeten it; I know that there is a special kind of sugar that is traditionally used but since I could not find it here I made some simple substitutions. The resulting homemade version was phenomenal! I am still a little surprised at how well the slightly sweet and spicy combo works so well in a black bean soup like this but this is definitely my new favourite soup!

This soup is amazing all by itself but some cool and creamy avocado makes an excellent addition!

As does some freshly made arepa!

Ingredients

• 1 pound dried black beans (about 2 cups), picked over, rinsed, soaked water overnight and drained
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1/2 pound (cured as opposed to fresh) chorizo sausage
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 7 cups chicken broth or chicken stock or water
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons lime juice (~1 lime)
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large sauce pan over medium-high heat, add the sausage and cook until lightly golden brown, about 10 minutes, and set aside.
2. Add the onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes.
3. Add the pepper and cook until just tender, about 3 minutes.
4. Add the garlic and cumin and cook until fragrant, about a minute.
5. Add the broth, beans, sausage, molasses and brown sugar, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the beans are tender, about 45 minutes.
6. Add the lime juice and season with salt and pepper to taste.

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