Oaxacan-Style Black Bean Soup with Avocado Leaf
Black beans simmered with toasted avocado leaf and a chile de árbol, blended smooth, and finished with lime and a spoon of crema.
Dried avocado leaves look like something that blew off a tree in the parking lot. Then they hit a hot skillet, the kitchen smells like anise, and the Oaxacan habit of putting them in black beans explains itself. This is that pot of beans with enough broth to call it soup.
The leaves are sold dried as hoja de aguacate, usually in a cellophane packet near the dried chiles at Mexican grocers around Houston. Look for leaves that are still olive green and mostly whole. The pale, crumbled ones have lost most of their scent. The leaves that belong in a pot come from the Mexican-type avocado. Avocado leaves can carry persin, a compound that poisons goats, horses, and birds, and the Guatemalan types are the ones most often involved.1 A backyard tree doesn’t come with a label, so buy the packet. If your store is out, epazote is the swap. It’s grassy and a little medicinal, with none of the anise, and it’s the herb in a pot of frijoles de olla across much of central Mexico, so you’re trading one old tradition for another.
I build this on no-salt-added canned beans because that makes a weeknight version possible in under an hour, and I salt the pot myself at the end, once the leaves have had their say. From dried beans it’s a two-hour simmer and a slightly better soup, and the method is in the swaps. . Warm tortillas on the side make it a meal.
Method
- 1
Toast the leaves and chile. Set a dry skillet over medium heat. When the pan is hot (a leaf should sizzle faintly on contact), lay in the avocado leaves and press them flat with a spatula for 20 to 30 seconds a side, until they darken in spots and the anise smell comes up. Move them to a plate. Toast the chile or chiles the same way, turning with tongs until they puff and go a shade darker, about 30 seconds. They burn fast, so pull them early if you’re unsure.
Dried chiles de árbol, glossy and deep red, with loose seedsPhoto: stephan de MARANTHI on Unsplash - 2
Sweat the onion and garlic. Warm the oil in a soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat until it shimmers. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring now and then, until the onion is soft and its edges have gone golden, 7 to 9 minutes.
- 3
Simmer the beans. Add the drained beans, the water or broth, the toasted leaves, and the chile or chiles. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat until the surface barely moves. Set the lid ajar and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, until a bean crushes against the side of the pot with no resistance and the broth smells like the leaves.
- 4
Pull the leaves. Fish out the avocado leaves with tongs and discard them. Leave the chile in for a soup with some heat, or take it out now for a gentler bowl.
- 5
Blend. Blend with an immersion blender until mostly smooth. If you’re using a countertop blender, work in two batches, fill the jar no more than halfway, vent the lid, and start on low so the hot soup doesn’t climb the sides. Stir the purée back in. Stop when it’s as smooth as you like it. I leave some whole beans.
- 6
Season and settle. Stir in the salt. Simmer another 5 minutes, uncovered, so the soup thickens a little, then taste. Add salt in small pinches until the beans taste like themselves, and thin with hot water if it’s thicker than you want.
- 7
Serve. Ladle into bowls. Squeeze a lime wedge over each, add a spoon of crema, and finish with the chopped onion, cilantro, and broken chips if you’re using them. Pass the rest of the lime.
Estimated from USDA FoodData Central for the soup alone, made with water, oil, and no-salt-added canned beans. Sodium counts the 1½ teaspoons of salt but not salt added to taste. Low-sodium broth in place of water adds about 140 milligrams per serving. Crema and toppings are not included. Varies with brands and portions.
Keeps
It keeps 3 to 4 days in the fridge. Get it in there within 2 hours of turning off the heat. A full pot cools slowly, so I split it between two shallow containers. It thickens as it sits. Loosen it with a splash of hot water when you reheat and bring it back to a full simmer. Frozen flat in zip bags, it’s good for 2 to 3 months and thaws in a sink of cold water while you warm tortillas. Lime and crema go on each bowl, never into the pot, or the soup sours and the crema breaks.
Swaps
From dried beans. Use 1 pound dried black beans (about 2⅓ cups), rinsed and picked over. Soak overnight or don’t; black beans cook either way, the soaked ones a little faster. After step 2, add the beans to the pot with 10 cups water, the toasted leaves, and the chile or chiles. Simmer with the lid ajar until a bean splits and its skin curls back, 1½ to 2 hours, topping up with hot water if the beans show above the surface. Then pick up at step 4. Salt at the end, same as the canned version, so you taste what the leaves have done before you decide how much.
No avocado leaf. Add 2 sprigs fresh epazote or 1 tablespoon dried with the beans in step 3. Both herbs are Mexican and both are right.
Vegan. Cook with oil, use water or vegetable broth, and make a cashew crema in place of the dairy one. Soak ½ cup raw cashews in hot water for 30 minutes, drain, and blend with ⅓ cup fresh water, a squeeze of lime, and a pinch of salt until smooth.
Heat. One chile is a warm bowl. Two is noticeably hot. Most of the heat comes from leaving the chile in through the blending, so pull it before you blend if you want the flavor without the burn.
Salt. The 1½ teaspoons is where I start. Adjust to taste and to whatever sodium limit your care team has given you.
Gluten free. The soup is gluten free on its own. Check the label on the broth and on the chips or tostadas, since some carry wheat.
Toppings. Crumbled queso fresco if you’re not keeping it vegan, sliced avocado, or a spoon of salsa verde.
Sources
- Merck Veterinary Manual. Avocado Toxicosis in Animals. Accessed October 2026. merckvetmanual.com
- Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, The Nutrition Source. Fiber. Accessed October 2026. nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu
- Gunness P, Gidley MJ. Mechanisms underlying the cholesterol-lowering properties of soluble dietary fibre polysaccharides. Food Funct. 2010;1(2):149-155. doi:10.1039/c0fo00080a. PMID 21776465. doi.org
- Ha V, Sievenpiper JL, de Souza RJ, et al. Effect of dietary pulse intake on established therapeutic lipid targets for cardiovascular risk reduction: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. CMAJ. 2014;186(8):E252-E262. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Duyff RL, Mount JR, Jones JB. Sodium Reduction in Canned Beans After Draining, Rinsing. Journal of Culinary Science & Technology. 2011;9(2):106-112. doi:10.1080/15428052.2011.582405. Black beans: 473 mg per label serving undrained, 311 mg drained and rinsed (34 percent less); mean across five bean types, 41 percent less. Open-access copy hosted by Bush Brothers & Company, a bean canner cited in the paper: https://www.bushbeans.com/-/media/BushsBeans/FAQ/reduced_sodium_article.pdf doi.org
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central: Beans, black, canned, sodium added, drained and rinsed (FDC ID 2644285, Foundation Foods; 218 mg sodium per 100 g); Beans, black, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt (FDC ID 173735, SR Legacy). Accessed October 2026. fdc.nal.usda.gov
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030. January 2026. p. 5 (less than 2,300 mg of sodium per day for ages 14 and above). cdn.realfood.gov