Sopa negra

Sopa negra is a traditional costa rican black bean soup that's usually eaten with white rice, pico de gallo and hard boiled eggs. Though it originated in Costa Rica, it has spread to most major Latin American countries and they all have their own special variations on the beloved dish.

The soup  is simple to make and generally involves cooking down a large amount of black beans, which can be either canned, fresh, or dried, and using the resulting liquid as a base which gives the soup it’s distinctive dark brown or black color.

The majority of the beans are saved and stored away- usually to be used to make gallo pinto, a traditional Costa Rican breakfast dish, for the next day. The native Costa Ricans are apparently rather famous for incorporating rice and beans into nearly every meal- and the rest are added to be enjoyed in the soup, the ratio of beans saved or added just depends on who’s making the soup and how thick they intend it to be.