From Taco Bar Saturday night to Black Bean Monday night! Eat Beans!

 

 

Saturday night we hosted a big birthday bash for my daughter who turned 18!  She requested a taco bar.  I made three kinds of beans - whole pintos, "refried" without the fry part , and whole black beans.  We chopped tons of vegetables, made guacamole, had hard taco shells, corn tortillas, and flour tortillas, and many other yummy yummy taco filling goodies.

Lately I have committed myself to using the food I have on hand.  This habit of returning to the market over and over must be broken!  So today when I was thinking about tonight's dinner I had the brillant idea to make a black bean soup with left overs.. because, really, how many tacos can we eat? We're about taco'ed out.  Kind of like tuckered out on tacos... hard to believe, I know.

I pulled chopped red onion, tomato, cilantro, and bell peppers out of the frig.  I took out the huge bowl of whole black beans.  I added some garlic, carrots, celery, and spices to the list and began making soup.

In the little dish to the right is Mexican oregano (can someone explain to me what makes it Mexican?), cumin and green chile powder.  Oh, and there is a darling little bowl of small round yellow potatoes that I didn't end up using, but aren't they cute?

Here's a close up of the red onions, orange and red bell peppers sauteeing prior to adding all the other stuff.  All that color has got to be absolutely wonderful for your body!

Here's a list of ingredients I used for this soup:

1 red onion chopped
1 - 2 cups of chopped red and orange bell pepper
 1 - 2 tablespoons coconut oil for saute
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp Mexican oregano
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp green chile powder (has a little kick to it!)
3 carrots chopped
3 stalks of celery diced
2 cups chopped tomatoes
5  - 8 cups black beans (I am not really sure how many there were)
2 or more cups of corn - I used frozen roasted corn
6 - 8 cups chopped kale (put kale into everything - it is a wonder food!)
3/4 bunch of chopped cilantro
1/2 lemon
salt to taste

1.  Heat soup pan and add oil
2. Saute red onion, bell peppers, and garlic
3.  When onions look translucent, add the carrots and celery
4.  Add the spices and stir everything well while continuing to saute
5.  I added 8 cups water and about 3/4 of my cooked black beans (probably 4 or 5 cups?) and the chopped tomatoes
6.  I brought it all to a boil and then simmered for 30 minutes or so and went to practice piano while it cooked
7.  I used a handheld immersion blender in the pot and mixed it all up to a smooth texture - always be careful of the hot soup when blending
8.  I added the rest of the black beans (maybe 2 - 4 cups?), the cilantro, corn,and the chopped kale and cooked for a bit longer
9.  Lastly I added the lemon juice from 1/2 lemon and salt to taste

We served the soup over left over brown rice (yup, from the taco party).  It was really pretty good.  Next time I would use more salt and a little more chile or maybe some fresh jalapeno.  I would also chop some avocado into the soup for flavor and extra good fat.  (I had already eaten my share of avocado for the day - maybe tomorrow?)

I served a big salad next to the soup.  The salad had fresh baby lettuce from the Farmer's Market,  pea pods, chopped carrots, chopped apple, pepitas, chopped cabbage from the taco bar party and hemp seed.  I dressed it right in the bowl with balsamic vinegar, flax seed oil, a squirt of mustard, nutritional yeast, onion and garlic powder, and some flavored salt.  Lots of crunchy goodness in this salad.

Soup can take a lot of chopping but it's worth it.  We now have a delicious pot full of protein, fiber, and nutrients that will feed us for the next few days.  Did you know that 1 cup of black beans has close to 15 grams of protein?  I bet this serving of soup had close to a cup of black beans in it.  1 cup of black beans is only about 218 calories and those are nutrient dense filling calories!  I say... eat beans!