Black Bean Soup with Tomato Salsa

I got this recipe years ago, but I think it may have come from a Williams Sonoma Cookbook. If you'd like to save yourself some time or don't have all the ingredients on hand you can always top your soup with purchased fresh salsa and cilantro. Make it a heartier meal by adding cheese, sour cream and chips.

For the soup:
1 1/4 cup dried black beans
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large yellow onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
3 cups water

For the salsa:
2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1/2 cup minced red (Spanish) onion
1/2 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded, and minced
1-2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
salt and freshly ground pepper

Rinse beans and let them soak for three hours or more.
Drain the beans, in a large pan over medium heat warm the olive oil, garlic, cumin, chili powder, drained beans and water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer gently. Simmer uncovered and until the beans are very tender and begin to fall apart (2-3 hours)

Salsa: stir together the tomatoes, red onion, jalapeno, limejuice, cilantro, salt and pepper.

Serve when soup is ready, and ladel the salsa on top (serves 6)