Black bean soup- with oomph

Lately I have been making an effort to eat more legumes.  Not only are they nutritious and cheap, but they're also a way for me to dilute Al's consumption of meat.  A few days ago I wound coming home from the store with many bags of beans, and all day yesterday I devoted my crock pot to making a huge batch of black beans.  In my opinion beans taste pretty awful without anything added to them, so I spent the whole day begrudgingly taste on testing the beans to see if they were done.  The plain black beans were nasty, but this soup on the other hand is deluxe.  It has a nice complex flavor that is achieved without too many ingredients.  I'm certain that this is going to be my go-to black bean soup recipe for well... forever!  I didn't bother taking a decent photo because this soup was beckoning me to devour it.  Rating 10/10.

Recipe adapted from My Culinary Quest
Ingredients

• 1 medium or large yellow onion- diced
• 1 serrano pepper- seeded (optional), and diced
• 1 tsp of chile or chili pepper
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1-4 cloves of garlic depending on your taste- minced.  I used 1 tsp of canned crushed garlic.
• 1 14.5 oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes- with their juices
• 6 cups of pre-cooked black beans, or 3 cans drained and rinsed
• 2 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 cup of cilantro leaves, plus more for topping
• 1/2 of a lemon- squeezed
• salt and pepper to taste.  Home-cooked beans have no added sodium so I ended up adding 1 1/2 tsp sea salt

Cook the onion and serrano pepper with the chile pepper, oregano, and cumin until soft.
Add the garlic and cook until fragrant- about 30 seconds.
Add in the tomatoes, black beans, and broth.  Stir well to combine.
Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Mix in the lime juice and cilantro and simmer for another ten minutes.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with a lime wedge, chopped up avocado, shredded cheese, cilantro, bread for dipping, you name it!