Spiced black bean & chicken soup with kale

This is another great soup which uses leftover cooked chicken. Even without the leftover chicken there are enough wonderful flavours with the spices and beans, so the chicken isn't absolutely necessary. The recipe came from the BBC delicious magazine. 

Ingredients
2 tbsp mild olive oil
2 fat garlic cloves, crushed
small bunch coriander stalks finely chopped, leaves picked
zest 1 lime, then cut into wedges
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chilli flakes
400g can chopped tomatoes
400g can black beans, rinsed and drained
600ml chicken stock
175g kale, thick stalks removed, leaves shredded
250g leftover roast or ready-cooked chicken
50g feta, crumbled, to serve
flour and corn tortillas, toasted, to serve (see tip)

Method
Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the garlic, coriander stalks and lime zest, then fry for 2 mins until fragrant. Stir in the cumin and chilli flakes, fry for 1 min more, then tip in the tomatoes, beans and stock. Bring to the boil, then crush the beans against the bottom of the pan a few times using a potato masher. This will thicken the soup a little.
Stir the kale into the soup, simmer for 5 mins or until tender, then tear in the chicken and let it heat through. Season to taste with salt, pepper and juice from half the lime, then serve in shallow bowls, scattered with the feta and a few coriander leaves. Serve the remaining lime in wedges for the table, with the toasted tortillas on the side. The longer you leave the chicken in the pan, the thicker the soup will become, so add a splash more stock if you can’t serve the soup straight away.

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