I love soup!!! There, I said it. I would happily eat soup every single day of the week and twice on Sundays, or other days also. . It's a great meal with some bread on the side, or salad, it's a great snack. I'll even eat most soups barely heated. I just love soup. My favorite soups are the ones where I start with one idea and start adding other things as I find them in the refrigerator. I try to make a pot of soup once a week and will usually eat it all week. My favorite cooking pot for soup is my slow cooker. Whatever genius invented the slow cooker is one of my favorite people, whoever that is. This past Sunday I took out my trusty ancient slow cooker for a soup session. When I say ancient, I'm not kidding. I'm pretty sure it's from the 70's, and yet it still works wonderfully, and it's huge so I can make alot of soup. Anyway, I digress. I wanted a soup with some substance, so I knew I wanted it to have beans, of course lots of veg, and I was in the mood for some spiciness. Hence I put together this soup that we will call Spicy Black Bean Veggie Soup. It simmered all day and we've been eating it this week. On Monday it was dinner with a cornbread muffin and salad. The rest of the week it's been lunch and/or snack. It was such a big hit that it's actually gone. So sad. This made about 10 large servings but of course you can freeze some of it for later use. The good thing about this is that around here it will likely always be a bit different because I tend to throw in things I have fresh from the garden, or as in this instance I had some fresh corn from the farmers that I had forgotten about and decided to put in. Soup is forgiving and hard to ruin. So while I was perusing the crisper, cupboard and such this is what I came up with. Blackbeans, potatoes, 2 sweet potatoes (from my garden), 3 ears corn on the cob, carrots, onion, garlic, okra from my garden, a quart of tomatoes I had canned from my garden. Yes this had the makings of a beautiful soup. Here's the recipe, but seriously use it as a guideline and throw in what you have, I promise it will be delicious.
Spicy Black Bean Veggie Soup
Ingredients
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
3-4 carrots diced
2 med. potatoes, chopped, I leave the skin on you can do what you want
2 med sweet potatoes, chopped, again, I leave the skin on
3 ears fresh corn, kernels taken off the cob, if you don't have fresh and want corn, use frozen about 1 1/2 cups
1 cup sliced okra (I like okra in soups, and that's it, cooking it for a long time in a soup or stew takes away the sliminess)
1 cup butterbeans or lima beans (also from my garden)
1 can blackbeans drained and rinsed or 1 1/2 cups cooked
1 quart fresh canned tomatoes, or of course you can use regular canned, go for a 28oz can of crushed or diced
3-4 cups veggie broth
2 1/2 tsp roasted cumin
1 tsp ancho chili powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 or 2 chipotle pepper, chopped *
*here's a chipotle pepper hint, I open a can and throw the whole thing in a blender and process until a paste, then I put it in an ice cube tray, abt 2 tsp per cube and freeze and then place in a ziploc bag and return to the freezer, so whenever I need chipotle pepper I just pull out a cube, if I only need a little I can slice some off a cube, in this recipe I used one cube.
Instructions
1. Set slow cooker to high. Chop and prepare all your veggies.
2. Add all veggies into crockpot, top with beans, tomatoes, broth and all spices. Give it a stir.
3. Cook on high for about 4-5 hours or low for 8.
4. When ready to serve just dish it up in a bowl, squirt a slice of lime all over it and enjoy. If you want to freeze some just allow it to cool and then put in freezer containers and you'll have delicious soup whenever you want it. Of course, like most soups, it tastes even better reheated. Enjoy
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