Monday, March 16, 2009

Quick Blackbean Soup - A Recipe in Pictures


This has been a Winter all about hunkering down, trying to live well while living economically. At our house, where we never ate much meat to begin with, we have been trying to eat more vegetarian meals. Of course it still being Winter, we also want them to be warm, hearty, and filling. Nothing fits that bill quite like this black bean soup. It's packed full of nutritional goodness, but you would never know it based on it's level of deliciousness! This time I actually made it with chicken broth, because it was what I had on hand, but all you have to do it replace it with vegetable broth and you're good on the veggie/vegan front. I call this recipe quick because I use canned black beans instead of soaking them and cooking them from dry, but you could certainly do that if you have the time, which I never seem to.

The Ingredient Round Up:

2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Large Onion
Carrots (Enough to have equal amounts)
Celery (Enough to have equal amounts)
1 Large Bell Pepper (I used Yellow here)
4 Cloves Garlic
2 25oz Cans of Black Beans
2-3 Cups Chicken Broth
1 teaspoon Cumin
1/2 teaspoon Dried Oregano
1/4 teaspoon Garam Masala
1/2 teaspoon Curry Powder (Not Pictured)
Salt & Pepper (to taste and season)
1/2 Tablespoon Fresh Thyme
Juice of 1/2 of a Lemon


Chop your veggies:


Heat 2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil in your pot, add veggies (and season with salt and pepper):


Make a tiny space to bloom your spices, cook separately, like so, until you can smell them:



Start cooking veggies down until soft and translucent (a little past this):


Add Black Beans (drained but not rinsed):


Add your thyme and enough broth to cover the mixture:


Simmer at med/low heat until everything is tender and favors have combined:


Add juice of half of one lemon at end and season to taste:


Puree with a stick blender, or pour into a regular blender which is much more messy, until desired consistency is achieved. I like to make it smooth but keep some whole beans and chunks so you know what's in the soup as you're eating it. You can change this recipe up in a million different ways, it's adaptable to many different spice profiles, cilantro and chili powder would also make it sing. Just don't skimp on the squeeze of some kind of citrus at the end. It really punches up the flavor. This soup goes great with a big hunk of crusty bread, saltine crackers as Mikie likes, or just as is. I would say this makes at least enough for four people, with just two in the house we always have lots of leftovers. (Perfect for pairing with some salsa-eggs in the morning!) Enjoy!


2 comments:

MJ said...

Awesome job, the pictures really make the taste jump out of the monitor! Having personally eaten this soup...I recommend everyone try it at least once, maybe twice...okie a lot!

Aurora Carpenters said...

I enjoyed reading your blog thanks.