What's Cookin'?

I have decided to make black bean soup for dinner and instead of just opening cans I'm gonna cook the beans.  I soaked one cup of beans overnight then added salt to the soaking water after reading a blog by a vegan cookbook author this morning.
I then drained the rinse water and added 1/4 whole onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 3 bay leaves and salt. When the beans are tender, which should take a couple of hours, I will discard the onion, garlic and bay leaves, and there should be about three cups of black beans.
In large soup pot I will sauté the rest of the chopped onion, two chopped cloves of garlic and two cups of sliced carrots.  When those are done, I will add the beans, 1/2 cup of orange juice, one can of Rotel tomatoes with green chiles and enough bean broth to make it a soup.  Salt, pepper and cumin will spice up the dish.  I would add a chipotle pepper in adobo sauce if I had it.


What to go with the meal?  How about some real southern cornbread and a cabbage slaw with red bell pepper with Caesar dressing?  Yup, that will definitely fit the bill.  A cheap red wine and Ben & Jerry's Karamel Sutra ice cream for dessert sounds good to me.


Let me tell you, the aroma in my house is glorious right now.  I love cooking!


Update:
Because the beans were so dang good and all of the ingredients so far were organic, I decided to ditch the Rotel tomatoes.  After I discarded the bay leaves, I left the onion because it had basically disintegrated and the one garlic clove I could find I smashed and added to the sauté mix.  I used the juice of 1/2 organic orange (devoured the other half) and then added Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes.  I don't like my soup to be too "soupy" and this turned out to be "da bomb".  Too bad you can't have any.