Black Bean Soup. I Guess.

Mom got me this Bittman vegetarian book, so the first recipe I tried was this black bean soup. I was/am in the position of knowing nothing about cooking, so I've been messing around with this a lot.  Chop an onion, brown it, add some cumin & chili powder (I'd been substituting red pepper flakes, since I didn't have any chili powder. I also learned that it is definitely NOT a one to one ratio, so I use a little lot less than a tablespoon of red pepper flakes), and some garlic. Then you throw the beans, stock or water, and whatever vegetables you feel like. This time, I had a couple tomatoes, some celery, and some green pepper; I'd been using potatoes a good bit, and then I was going to use peas, but I realized that it was probably too much starch, so I'm trying to throw more real vegetables and less bread-disguised-as-vegetables.  This is also the first time I'm using chili powder, so I'm interested to see how it turns out.