I was surprised at all the responses to my quest for soup blog so I wanted to share with you further adventures in my quest to get a bowl of warm, hearty soup... since somehow "out there" wasn't where it was to be found.

It was rather syncronistic that my friend, Keely, invited me into a Crock Pot challenge... a group of women who also blog and also take photos... to come up with a Crock Pot recipe every week which we will then share the recipe and photograph.

I am a nut with my camera, ask me about one of my photography goals and I will be off, running and ready to regale you with much more than you ever wanted to know.

But last night when I was battling the yucks I finally agreed to take a spoon full of my Black Bean Soup masterpiece.

Yes, it was a masterpiece.

I just had a bowl for lunch, too. It is still epic.

Here is the photo I took:

And yes, there are several of the ingredients.

Mmmmmmmmmmm. And I feel so healthy, too.

Here is the recipe:

3/4 of a 1 pound bag dried black beans
3 - 14 1/2 oz. cans vegetable broth
2 carrots, sliced thinly
2 - 10 oz. cans diced tomatoes (I chose the ones
with Lime and cilantro)
1 tbsp dried basil

Soak black beans overnight, and then later rinse and drain when ready to prepare. Add beans, carrots and tomatoes to the crock pot. and submerge with broth. Stir and season to your liking with salt, cumin or cayenne pepper. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. Some people might want to serve with shredded cheese but I didn't want to add anything with animal products. I think this was my first ever vegan meal, so I was very excited... but beyond that, it was just delectable and hearty and sooo tasty!

I am still hoping to find a simple pumpkin soup recipe to use up some of that canned pumpkin I got and didn't use for the Christmas holidays and I just adore the taste of pumpkin.

When that happens, I will let all of you, my Bakotopian soup lovers, be among the first to know.