Creamy Mexican Bean Soup is our go-to when our family craves a touch of spice on chilly days. Surprisingly, we find ourselves savoring this delightful creation even on scorching summer afternoons!
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Soups are comfort food in a bowl, and this easy-to-make recipe is made with flavorful beans, sweet corn, a trio of peppers, and cheddar cheese in a rich and creamy broth that can be easily whipped up in under an hour. This hearty bowl of soup promises to please your taste buds.
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Why You Will Love This Soup
- Choose your favorite ingredients. You can easily change ingredients in this recipe depending on your tastes. For instance, you could add black beans, different types of peppers, or maybe one type of pepper. You could go crazy and make this soup extra spicy by adding pepper jack cheese and cheddar or using all pepper jack. The choices are endless.
- This recipe is meatless. The beans bring lots of fiber and protein, but adding chicken or ground beef would make this even heartier.
- Want vegetarian soup? Exchange the chicken broth for vegetable broth.
- The star of this recipe is cream. Yes, adding cream to this broth-based bean soup adds a wonderful creamy richness that pairs well with the spices and peppers.
- Make this soup in under an hour. That's right; this soup takes a short simmer to cook those Mexican flavors.
Try making a hearty Mexican Rice Bowl for an alternative to this soup. And these recipes are family favorites. Try these classics: Chicken And Sweet Corn Soup and Crockpot Ham and Potato Soup.
Bean Soup Ingredients
Don't be afraid of this long list; everything is easy, and this recipe uses lots of spices.
- Pinto Beans - a tender bean with an earthy and nutty flavor
- Kidney Beans - a meaty textured bean with a slight sweetness
- Olive Oil - used for sautéing the veggies. You can use canola or coconut oil too
- Fresh or Frozen Corn - you pick, you can also use leftover corn on the cob
- Chicken Stock - the base of the recipe for flavor use canned or homemade
- Cream - the cream adds a delicious richness to the soup
- Red Pepper - love the color and the sweet pepper flavor
- Green Pepper - a more bitter-flavored pepper
- Poblano Pepper - a Mexican-flavored soup needs this dark green mild pepper for an earthy flavor.
- Jalapeno Pepper - this soup will appreciate the heat from a jalapeno
- Garlic - just one clove adds plenty of aromatic flavors
- Ground Cumin - the warm earthy flavor and aroma adds a distinctly Mexican flavor
- Ground Red Pepper - adds some heat to your soup
- Cilantro - this love-it-or-hate-it herb definitely adds flavor to the soup with its tart lemon-lime taste. You decide if you want to use it.
- Cheddar Cheese - for the creamy melt-in-your-mouth goodness
- Salt & Pepper - enhances the flavor of everything.
- Toppings - Sour Cream, Cheddar Cheese, Lime, and if you like Cilantro, toss some more on top.
How To Make Corn And Bean Soup: Step-By-Step
This recipe couldn't be any easier; chopping, shredding, and stirring is all it takes. Let's start!
Step 1. Prep all the veggies first to be ready to add to the soup pan. Seed and dice all the peppers, chop the cilantro, peel, and dice the garlic.
Step 2. Heat your soup pot on medium heat, then add the olive oil. Stir in the corn, use fresh or frozen, cook for one minute, then add all the spices and garlic. Stir and cook the corn and spices for about three minutes until they are fragrant.
Step 3. Add the peppers, then stir and cook on medium heat for another three minutes to soften the peppers.
Step 4. Add the chicken broth, stir, and bring back to a simmer, then add the cream, stir, and bring the soup to a slow simmer for 15 - 20 minutes until the peppers are cooked.
Step 5. Shred the cheese while the soup is simmering. I prefer using a small handheld cheese grater to shred cheese; it's fast and easy. Add the shredded cheese in small amounts to the simmering soup and stir between each addition. Stir well until the cheese is melted, then add the chopped cilantro. That's it; you are done!
When adding cheese to this soup recipe, it's best to shred your own instead of using prepackaged shredded cheese. The prepackaged cheese is often coated in anti-caking agents, which keeps it from thoroughly melting.
Soups on, and it is so delicious!
How to Store Soup
Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days.
This soup freezes well. Just ladle the soup into an airtight bowl or even a single-serve bowl and freeze. Let the soup thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then reheat medium-low until hot.
Pin for later when you want a delicious soup
Try these spicy recipes
- This Butternut Squash Turkey Chili is perfect on a cold day.
- For some other Mexican flavors, try these easy-to-make Bite-Sized Chicken Taco Cups for a tasty appetizer or light meal.
- If you like to eat crackers with your soup, bake these Cotswold Cheese Crackers for a savory crunch.
- Bake a batch of these Mexican Meatballs to serve with this soup. Everyone loves the cheese stuffed inside.
More To Make And Eat
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Recipe
Creamy Mexican Corn and Bean Soup
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Equipment
- Soup Pot 5 quart
Ingredients
Soup Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 16 oz. can pinto beans drained
- 1 16 oz. can kidney beans drained
- 2 cups frozen corn
- ½ cup green pepper seeded and diced
- ½ cup red pepper seeded and diced
- ½ cup pasilla pepper seeded and diced
- 1 jalapeno seeded and diced
- 1 clove garlic chopped
- 2 ½ cups chicken stock
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 tsp. cumin
- 1 tsp. onion powder
- ¼ tsp. ground red pepper
- salt and pepper to taste
- ¼ lb cheddar cheese grate this to make 1 cup of shredded cheese
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Corn and Bean Soup Toppings (optional)
- sour cream
- shredded cheese
- lime
- diced onion
Instructions
- Prep your ingredients first by draining the beans, chopping the garlic, and seeding and dicing the peppers.
- Place a large stockpot on medium heat. I use 5.75" stockpot. Once the pot is hot add the olive oil.
- Add the corn to the pot and cook for a minute. Next, add all the peppers and the dry seasoning plus the garlic to the pot and stir, frequently until the corn and peppers are cooked and the spices are fragrant about three minutes.
- Add the beans and the chicken stock to the corn mixture, stir well then bring to a boil. Turn the heat to medium-low and let cook at a simmer for 15 minutes.
- While the soup is simmering shred the cheddar cheese using a box grater or a micro plan cheese grater, this should yield 1 cup of shredded cheese. Alternately you can use pre-shredded cheese.
- Add the cream to the soup pot and stir well. Bring the soup back to a simmer then add the cheese in small batches, stirring between batches so it melts easily, then stir in the cilantro. Taste the soup to adjust any season and let simmer for 5 minutes.
- Serve the soup hot. Add any of the optional toppings.
Notes
Nutrition
First published: Feb. 23, 2020; last updated: July 18, 2023, for better readability.
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About Jere’
From learning to cook on a farm in Indiana to culinary school in California, my passion for food is never-ending. Turning on my oven to bake something for friends and family is my happy place, and I am glad to be here at One Hot Oven, sharing both sweet and savory recipes with all my baking friends.
Katie
This Mexican corn soup is incredible! Super rich and creamy and so easy to make!
Aimee DiPasquale
this seems almost like a chicken tortilla soup without the chicken.
Shelby
This is so creamy and comfoting! I love the little spice kick too, great way to curb a cold before it gets full blwon.
Nancy
Love this combo of flavours. So satisfying