Black Bean Soup

This week has been cold and has me craving soup. Not everyone in my household seems to follow me on my love of soups, however today seems to be a great day to have a pot of soup going on the stove.

Today I wanted to make a black bean soup, today’s version is vegetarian which probably has my husband squirming as he reads this….what no meat? Yes dear, no meat, but protein nonetheless!

As per usual I create with what happens to be in the fridge and pantry, so today’s version is this:

In a large stockpot melt

1 tablespoon of coconut oil (or butter or olive oil)

Add the following:

1 onion, diced

2 celery stalks (leaves included)

1 large carrot

Cook until translucent (10 minutes roughly)

Add 1 litre of broth (I did not have any broth or stock on hand today but I did have some leftover roasted veggies in the fridge – so into my blender went 1 leftover sweet potato, 1 leftover carrot and approximately 1 cup of leftover spaghetti squash – pureed and added enough water to make 1 litre, plus 1 large scoop of tomato paste)

Add the broth to the pot

Add 1 large handful of chopped fresh parsley (optional – just had it on hand)

Add 2 teaspoons of cumin, 1 teaspoon of chilli powder, 1 teaspoon of paprika and a few dried hot peppers (red pepper flakes would work too, adjust the heat to your liking)

I did not have any dried black beans on hand so had to resort to canned today (be sure to rinse thoroughly). Dried beans would be better – however would also have to be soaked and cooked ahead of time

Add 2 cans of black beans to your pot

2 garlic cloves – smashed

Let simmer until cooked through. I then took part of the soup and pureed in my blender, then added back to the pot – so it was partially pureed and partially chunky. An immersable hand blender would work as well. Just be careful doing this when the soup is still hot – not all blenders can handle the heat so you may want it to cool slightly first.

Soup can be enjoyed within 20 minutes, however often times is even better the next day.

Diced tomatoes, peppers, red onion etc could all be easily added to this soup.

You can eat this on its own, you can top it with sour cream or yogurt and some chopped green onions if you wish. (no longer vegan if you are adding sour cream or yogurt)

This soup would also be tasty over cooked quinoa or rice or with some warm corn bread out of the oven.

So, before I posted this I decided that I "needed" corn bread to go with my soup for lunch. So, I googled and found this recipe here which I thought sounded like it needed a few changes:

http://ibreadhunter.blogspot.com/2011/11/gluten-free-cornbread.html

And adapted it to:

• instead of brown rice flour I substituted quinoa flour
• instead of canola I substituted olive oil and coconut oil (butter would also work)
• instead of milk I substituted coconut milk
• used part honey/part maple syrup as I happened to run out of honey!
• added a 1/4 tsp of cayenne

And lunch was created:

The corn bread was a bit crumbly out of the oven, and I used coarse sea salt instead of regular and I may have slightly over salted....however still super yummy and a great addition to the soup. Just what was needed after burning 500 + calories this morning teaching spin class.

Enjoy the weekend all!