Sprouted black bean soup

I adapted this recipe from this one from allrecipes.com.

2 cups dried black beans (soaked and sprouted, when cooked equals 4-5 cups)
1 1/2 - 2 quarts of homemade chicken broth
2 cups frozen/fresh corn
3 "ugly" (only $1/lb!) tomatoes from the farmer's mkt, chopped
4 tsp diced jalapeños.
3-4 cloves garlic, minced.
1 large onion, chopped.
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp chili powder
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup salsa

Optional toppings:
Pepper jack cheese
Cheddar cheese
guacamole
sour cream
tortilla chips


This soup is sooo good and cost me about $3 to make a huge pot! I go the extra mile and sprout my beans and make my own chicken broth, so feel free to substitute cans if you need to. How to sprout beans, taken from this site:

"1-Wash then soak beans for 8-12 hours (in a glass, ceramic or stainless steel bowl)

2-Drain, rinse and cover.
3-Rinse twice a day until a ‘tail’ emerges from the end of the bean. Use sprouted beans as soon as this ‘tail’ is visible or wait until it grows as long as ¼ the length of the bean.
4-Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Sprouted beans cook in just a few minutes. Cook them until soft though they don’t need to be AS soft as unsprouted beans need to be. With sprouted beans they are digestible even before this stage-so experiment and see what feels best and tastes best to you."

If you sprout your beans or use canned, cooking time will be greatly reduced! If you have soaked your beans overnight and are not sprouting, you will need to cook the beans beforehand for a couple hours or until soft. Mine were sprouted, so I just put all the ingredients in a big pot and cooked for about 45 minutes to an hour. I poured it on top of organic blue corn tortilla chips and topped with pepper jack cheese. Super yummy! Did not miss the meat at all!