Southwestern Black Bean and Corn Chowder

Tonight I'm making a repeat soup for the third time.  Needless to say, it's one of my favorite soups and it's so incredibly easy to make.  I'm making Southwestern Black Bean and Corn Chowder out of Vegan on the Cheap by Robin Robertson.  In my quest to use the pantry items I have on hand, I had to make a few substitutions.

The recipe calls for a 4 oz. can of mild green chilies.  Upon checking my pantry, I found I had exactly zero cans of green chilies.  I checked my canned tomato supply and found exactly zero cans of tomatoes and chilies.  However, I did have two jalapeno peppers.  No, I did not use both of them.  I did use one, cutting away the membranes and dumping the seeds.

I used black beans I had cooked a month ago and froze (no preservatives or salt).  I did not have any veggie broth in the house.  I could have used bouillon and water, but I had just opened a carton of mushroom broth last night for the Portobello Philly Cheese Steaks and I wanted to use that up.  So, I used mushroom broth.  The mushroom broth did not affect the flavor of the soup that I can tell.  I also added several healthy twists of freshly ground chipolte pepper.

Since I have 4 avocados, I cut one up to add to my bowl of soup tonight.  I have to eat them sometime.  The addition of the avocado was a good one.  It added creaminess without adding a processed food to the soup in the form of soy sour cream.  I like it.  I think the avocado would be a good addition if it was pureed, too.