Heat your chopped onion and garlic for five minutes in a big soup pot on medium, just until slightly transluscent and fragrant

Rinse the beans and then put them in the pot with your onion, garlic along with 10 cups of water.

Bring the beans to a rapid boil and then reduce the heat and continue to cook at a low boil for 1 1/2 hours.

An hour into the cooking add your other ingredients including the canned tomatoes, the green chilis, the peppers and corn and the cilantro along with the juice of a half of lime and the seasoning packet from the beans.

Let the soup finish cooking for the remaining thirty minutes and then salt and pepper to taste and serve.