Black Bean Soup

I am a daily reader of the Smitten Kitchen. Many of her recipes look amazing. As soon as I saw this one, yesterday, I knew I had to make it.

This took me about 10 minutes to put together after I can home from dinner out. It was SO good! I didn't make the Chipotle and Toasted Cumin Seed Crème Fraîche but I'm sure it would give this soup an even better flavor and an added depth.

Black Bean Soup with Chipotle and Toasted Cumin Seed Crème Fraîche
Adapted from Bon Appetit
http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/01/black-bean-soup-toasted-cumin-seed-crema/#more-5562

Yields 6 main course servings

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil - omitted
2 medium-size red onions, chopped - I used one HUGE red onion
1 medium-size red bell pepper, chopped - didn't have, so omitted
1 medium-size green bell pepper, chopped - didn't have, so omitted
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 teaspoons ground cumin
1 16-ounce package dried black beans
1 tablespoon chopped chipotle chiles from a can (this gives it a solid kick, dial back if you are wary)
7 cups hot water (I just used very hot tap water)
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice - used limequats (like kumquats but different)
2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper



You're supposed to heat olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and both bell peppers and sauté until beginning to brown, about eight minutes. Add garlic and cumin; stir one minute. I didn't do any of that - I just dumped everything in to the crock-pot. Transfer mixture to 6-quart slow cooker. Add beans and chipotles, then 7 cups hot water. Cover and cook on high until beans are very tender, about 3 hours. I actually cooked it for 8 hours on low, overnight.

Transfer two cups bean mixture to blender; puree until smooth. Return puree to remaining soup in slow cooker. Stir in lime juice, salt, and pepper. Adjust seasonings to taste. Ladle soup into bowls.

Beer Glazed Beans

Every Sunday morning we cook for the monkeys. Today, my in-laws came over and we made breakfast for the family. We made both waffles and eggs. This meal kept me full until about 7pm.

I decided to make something a bit different for dinner. A couple of days ago I was tooling around the Cooking Light bulletin board and came across a recipe that sounded WONDERFUL. A complete pantry meal (with a little substitution).

Beer-Glazed Black Beans
(Mark Bittman: HTCE, 2008 revised edition)

Makes: 4 servings
Time: 20 minutes with cooked beans

It's amazing how much flavor you can get from adding beer to black beans. Lagers and wheat beers will produce a lighter, fruitier dish; porters will add richness and stouts a deep, caramelized flavors.

Other beans you can use: pinto, pink or black-eyed peas

2 Tbsp. EVOO (I used 1 tbsp.)
1 onion, chopped
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 cup beer (I used Sierra Nevada)
3 cups cooked or canned black beans, drained but still moist (I used 1 can black beans and 1 can garbanzo beans because that’s what I had on hand)
1 Tbsp. ground chili powder or ground cumin (I used 2 tsp. each)
1 Tbsp. honey
salt & freshly ground pepper

1. Put the oil in a skillet over med-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until soft, about five minutes. Add the garlic, cook for about a minute, then add the remaining ingredients with a good sprinkling of salt and pepper.

2. Bring to a steady boil and cook til the liquid is slightly reduced and thickened, about 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Serve hot or refrigerate for up to 3 days and reheat.

I added sliced chicken and apple sausage I had in the freezer to the mix as the been mixture was starting to boil.

The first 15 minutes of tasting this, the beer COMPLETELY overwhelmed this dish. It could have been the beer I used (I'm not a beer connoisseur) but it took about 30 minutes for the flavors to join together and be quite tasty.

I have a feeling that this will be AMAZING tomorrow for lunch, after the flavors have had a chance to completely meld together over night.

Cheap Eats

On Monday night I realized that I had been slacking on bringing my lunch with me and decided to make something that would take me through a couple of lunches.

The easiest vehicle for that is my Crock Pot! I am trying to save money, be healthy and NOT spend a lot of time cooking during the week. Out come the beans.

I order my beans through the mail from Rancho Gordo, and no they are not magic beans. They also do not get buried in the back yard where they are expected to sprout a bean stalk and take me up to a giant.

They are DARN GOOD BEANS though! I used marrow beans this time - the whole 1 lb. bag.

My method for Beans:
Rinse beans in a colander
Place in bottom of a crock pot
Add roughly chopped celery on top of beans
Add roughly chopped onion on top of beans
Add roughly chopped carrots on top of beans
Add 5 smashed garlic cloves on top of beans
Ad 1 tsp of whole peppercorns on top of beans
Add water to cover beans by about 1 inch
Set crock pot to low for 8 hours

The reason I add the veggies on top of the beans is to "weigh" the beans down as much as possible before the water is added so that the beans won't float up too much.

I set this to cook at 10pm. When I woke up in the morning (the final time, not 12am when I was woken up to take the big monkey to the ER) I had a healthy, nutritious, cheap and easy lunch to take to work.

I just put the beans in a container and topped with some of the carrots and bean broth. At work, I added some hot sauce and dug in! I think this would also make a great "base" stew - just added shredded meat, other veggies for the last hour of cooking, or right before you reheat.

This makes QUITE a lot of beans. The cost of the dish was $5 for the pound of beans (although you can find dried beans most place for under $2), about $.25 for the 2 stalks of organic celery, about $.20 for the 2 organic carrots, $.20 for the 1 onion and $.10 for the 5 cloves of garlic.

For $5.75 have at least 3 lunches and a couple of bags of beans to use as parts of other recipes.

Who says good, filling food has to be expensive?

Beans - yes, I'm immature

Beans, beans, they're good for your heart.
The more you eat, the more you fart.
The more you fart, the better you feel.So let's eat beans for every meal!



I love me some Rancho Gordo Beans. I found out about them on the Cooking Light Bulletin Board, one of my favorite places on the web ever! Before Rancho Gordo Beans I had never cooked beans from scratch. I always used canned - it was easier, faster and truthfully I didn't know what to do or how to do it.

It turns out - it's SUPER easy. And these beans are about 10 times tastier than canned - including the broth, which oddly enough is not supposed to be sticky and filmy looking (like the stuff you rinse off of the canned beans)!

This is where, for me, the crock pot comes in. There really is no recipe, just Steve Sando's (of Rancho Gordo) method... or at least my version of it.

Crock pot Beans (any type really)
Ingredients:
1 lb, beans
Water to cover beans by 1/2 inch
1 Onion, roughly chopped
2 Carrots
2 Stalks of Celery
5 Whole Peppercorns (I just throw in a couple)
Salt

Rinse beans in colander for at least 1 minute to get rid of any dirt or pebbles. Dump Beans in crock pot. Add onion, carrots and celery on top of the beans. Pour water over beans until the beans are covered by at least 1 inch (I layer the vegetables over the beans before I pour in water so that the beans don't float up to the top). Add peppercorns and salt.

Set the crock pot on low for 8 hours. Taste after 8 hours and adjust seasonings.

Don't resist the urge to have some beans broth soup. Super yummy, super tasty and no pre-soaking or fussing. So far for me, it has worked perfectly every time.

A good influence

I went to another Zumba class tonight and did not have time for dinner (but I did have time to eat 2 chicken nuggets). I got home and was starving!

Since I'm blogging, and haven't posted a recipe yet this week, I decided to cook instead of eating eggs or left overs. See - this blog is a good influence on me.

I wanted something quick, easy and healthy. So I went to my "go-to" source - The Cooking Light Bulletin Board.

Bobmark226 (Bob) posted a recipe from Bittman: HTCE, 2008 revised edition. Of course, and I don't know HOW THIS HAPPENED, I am out of onions and garlic. I also made a couple of other substitutions and eye-balled the ingredients.

I will post the recipe as written and add my changes on the side.

Beer-Glazed Black Beans (turned out to be Wine-Glazed Black Beans)
Makes: 4 servings
Time: 20 minutes with cooked beans

It's amazing how much flavor you can get from adding beer to black beans. Lagers and wheat beers will produce a lighter, fruitier dish; porters will add richness and stouts a deep, caramelized flavors.Other beans you can use: pinto, pink or black-eyed peas



2 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 onion, chopped (I used onion powder)
1 Tbsp. minced garlic (I used garlic powder)
1 cup beer (I used white wine - which isn't in the picture)
3 cups cooked or canned black beans, drained but still moist (I used one can Black Beans since I scaled it down just for me)
1 Tbsp. ground chili powder or ground cumin ( I used both)
1 Tbsp. honey
salt & freshly ground pepper

1. Put the oil in a skillet over med-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until soft, about five minutes. Add the garlic, cook for about a minute, then add the remaining ingredients with a good sprinkling of salt and pepper.
2. Bring to a steady boil and cook til the liquid is slightly reduced and thickened, about 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Serve hot or refrigerate for up to 3 days and reheat.

While searching through the pantry, I noticed a tin of sardines!!



Yummy!! So - I added one on top (I think it's a European thing to love sardines).



WOW!!!! This was "lick my plate" good. Eat "way too much" good. The honey, chili powder and cumin really packed a flavorful punch!! So tasty!!