T.G.I. Friday's Slow-Cooker Black Bean Soup

By Addie

"I got this off of Top Secret Recipe's.I love Friday's Black bean soup because of its spiciness and I was so happy to find this! This is so easy to prepare! You can make this soup on the stovetop or in the crockpot.I brought this soup to a boil on the stove and then put it in the crockpost and let it simmer on low for 2-3 hours. If you like Black Bean Soup your gonna love this!"

Ingredients

• GARNISHES:
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup diced white onions
• 3/4 cup diced celery
• 1/2 cup diced carrots
• 1/4 cup diced green bell peppers
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 4 (15 ounce) cans black beans
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon hickory liquid smoke
• .........................................
• Shredded Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheese blend, blend
• Chopped green onions, sour cream

Preparation

Step 1

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large saucepan over medium/low heat.

Add onion, celery, carrot, bell pepper, and garlic to the oil and simmer slowly (or"sweat" as it's called), for 15 minutes or until the onions are practically clear.

Keep the heat low enough that the veggies don't brown and be careful not to burn the garlic or it will be bitter.

While you cook the veggies, pour the canned beans into a strainer and rinse them under cold water.

Measure 3 cups of the drained and strained beans into a food processor with 1 cup of chicken stock. Puree on high speed until smooth.

When the veggies are ready, pour the pureed beans, the whole beans, the rest of the chicken stock, and every other ingredient in the list (down to liquid smoke), to the pot.

Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 50 to 60 minutes or until soup has thickened and all the ingredients are tender.

I brought this soup to a boil on the stove and then put it in the crockpost and let it simmer on low for 2-3 hours.
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REVIEWS:

This turned out great. I did things a little different then the recipe. I used 1lb of dry beans that I simmered for 2 hours then used just like canned beans. I also added 1 lb of cooked chicken breast. Very nice recipe!

I did make several changes based on what we like/what I had on hand, but we really enjoyed this. I did not have celery or carrot, so I omitted them and used extra onion and green pepper. I used vegetable broth to keep it vegetarian, and I have never used liquid smoke so did not have any, but I added extra cumin. It was a very thick soup, but had great flavor and I will make again!

YUM YUM YUM!!!! Did a few things a little different but overall kept the recipe as is. I added more veggie's (I love the chunks of vegetables!), added lime juice to the pureed black bean mixture and added one can of petite diced tomatoes. My roommate and I absolutely loved this! It will be a new staple in our house!

Whole family enjoyed this. I simmered in the crockpot for at least 2 hours. It was really watery when I removed the lid so I turned up the heat and simmered a bit longer, without the lid. It was a perfect consistency. I served it over white rice and offered chopped onion (didn't have green onion but the regular tasted great with it), grated cheese and sour cream as condiments. Thank you for posting this.

I love this recipe! The only thing different is to sub. with veg stock to make it vegetarian.

I only made half a recipe but wish I made the whole thing. Very warm and comforting on a dreary, rainy, winter day. I'm trying to save the leftovers to take to work tomorrow but the bowl in the fridge is calling my name! Thanks for a great recipe Little Bee.

Delish! you do not need to cook vegetables in oil though...lighten it up....just soften them in chicken broth.......2 percent or fat free cheese and light or fat free sour cream....excellent recipe, thanks for sharing

TERRIFIC is all we can say, Remember TGIF's...this soup MADE MY DAY! Quick, delicious, healthy too! HIGHLY recommended to you too!
For those in Australia, found black beans at Asian Grocery TRUE!...vacuumed packed or dry, is up to YOU! UPDATE: Made this again today! Got the WHOO HOO again is what I can say!

After making this soup, I wanted to make it a bit heartier, plus I thought the soup didn't have enough whole black beans. With that being said, I also noticed I ran out of canned black beans, so I ended up adding a can of pinto and a can of soy beans, plus I added 2 cups of frozen corn kernels. Since I added the corn and more beans, I found I only needed to simmer the soup for 30 minutes for it to thicken up. I did want to mention... when saute'ing the vegetables in oil, I did use 2-1/2 tablespoons, plus I added a bit more carrots (2/3's cup). I saute'd the vegetables for 9 minutes before adding the garlic, and after adding the garlic, I only saute'd it for 1 more minute. I enjoyed this soup topped with shredded sharp cheddar cheese and sour cream. I do think by adding the hickory flavored liquid smoke, it gave the soup lots of flavor. My husband and I enjoyed this soup, and I will make this again, but with the modifications I made. Little Bee, thanks for sharing the recipe!!

I bought the Todd Wilbur Top Secret Restaurant Recipes book for this recipe alone! My wife and I love this soup and were very sad to see the last time we went to Friday's that it was no longer on the menu :( (Good thing we have this recipe!) Have made many times and wouldn't change a thing. Hands down the best black bean soup recipe and one of our top 5 soups of all time!

Yum! Even my pick 9 year old loved this!

I usually never cook with black beans but bought one tin just to try it once. Well, one can was not enough for this soup and I added one can of chick peas but otherwise followed the recipe. The taste was super and I will make it again.

Delicious soup! I love all the added veggies in the background and the black beans were great (should eat them more often.) I subbed Knorr's Homestyle Stock for the chicken stock (as I was out) and just made up the rest with some leftover beef stock in the fridge. The cayenne proved too much for my youngest (7yo), but that was somewhat expected. I maybe could have decreased the cayenne by a tiny amount, but not by much as I found it great as is. I forgot that I had the green onions and sour cream, but honestly, it wasn't missed and was great with a sprinkling of cheese alone. Oh, and it was absolutely fantastic for lunch the next day, served over rice! Thanks so much for sharing.

I made this recipe on the stovetop & actually skipped the whole pureeing step altogether. I did not have liquid smoke, but did have a smoked ham hock. I debated back and forth about adding it to the pot and I'm glad that I finally did put it in. Wow, everyone raved about it. The baby ate it, my 6 year old loved it and my hubby said to save the recipe! We finished it with a bit of sour cream which really complimented it nicely. My 6 year old also "scooped" hers with corn chips. The only other addition to the original recipe is that I added a leftover mashed up baked sweet potato & 1/2 cup quick cooking barley to the pot about 10 minutes before it was ready to serve and I simmered it for at least an hour prior to that. (I mostly did this because I only had 2 cans of black beans and 1 can dark kidney beans, this made up for at least one can of beans). Thanks for sharing, it was a great one dish meal on a cold night, served with cornbread.

Oh Man was this good! I've never had the TGI Friday's version of this, so this is my standard. Didn't stray from the recipe one ingredient. I went the crockpot way and Only thing I added were tortilla strips. Crock-pot is just to easy. Outstanding dish! I can impress with the dish. Definitely will be making again! P'rciate cha!

Wow..so good...I followed the recipe exactly...However, I didn't have any sour cream but it is still soooooo delicious..thanks for posting it.

Yummy! I made this as written, but only pureed about 2/3 of the beans. This has great flavor. Don't skip the cider vinegar or the hickory smoke flavor. They are key ingredients. Thanx for sharing !

Left out the celery for personal preference and replaced 1 can of the black beans with a can of pintos with jalapeno peppers. Used 1 mini orange and 1 mini yellow bell peppers in place of the green bells and did not measure the onion, just chopped one up in the mini processor, along with the bell peppers. Great flavor. Next time, may roast the onion, garlic and bells instead of sweating, just for fun. Have tasted and love the flavor; now, if it just thickens a bit. . . Update: did not get as thick as we like, so cooked and added some brown lentils. Seriously yummy stuff here; served with the Oatmeal and Brown Sugar Bread found on this site.

Super delicious, I used the crock pot method. I followed the directions exactly. The only thing was I had to add 2 TBS. cornstarch/water to thicken it. Otherwise, it was delicious.

This is very good. I made exactly as stated. There are not many recipes I can try to recreate that I can say that As my sense of taste is diminished I usually have to compensate by changing a recipe. and when I rate it I have to use my changes as otherwise it is not fare to the creator as sometimes I want to give a low rating when hundreds of others loved I know it is just my taste buds speaking and not fair to the cook. But this one is exceptional.