Tag Archives: soup

Black Bean Soup with Caramelized Onions

24 Jan

I love black bean soup.  It’s pretty easy to prepare, it’s great as leftovers, it’s a blank slate for toppings and, as a bonus, it’s  quite healthy.  Black beans are a good source of fiber and protein (like most beans), but they are also the antioxidant superstar in the bean family.  What’s not to love?

I like to cook a big batch of black beans every couple of weeks.  I soak overnight, rinse and drain and then put in the crockpot with filtered water and kombu to cook.  The kombu does wonders for making the beans, well, less musical?  Who am I kidding?  I have a three year old little boy who loves to giggle about toots and f*rts.  Thankfully when cooking beans with kombu, there is much less to giggle about.

After the beans are cooked, I usually freeze half in mason jars.  The texture of the thawed beans is a little off for dishes that feature beans eaten straight out of the can, but is perfectly fine in soups and casseroles where the beans will be cooked again.  Like this one.

Black Bean Soup with Caramelized Onions

Ingredients:

  • 1 carrot, diced
  • 1 large onion, sliced
  • 2 cloves garlic, sliced
  • 1 red pepper, sliced
  • 2 Tbsp grapeseed oil
  • 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 cup plain tomato sauce or puree
  • 2 cups vegetable broth (or water)
  • 2 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1/2 tsp dried chipotle chili powder

Directions:
  1. Heat grapeseed oil in a pan over medium heat. Reduce heat to medium low. Add onions and cook slowly until browned, stirring occasionally.  This should take about 20 minutes.  (My pan is really small)
  2. Remove onions from pan and increase heat to medium-high. Add peppers and garlic and saute for 4-5 minutes, or until soft.
  3. Add onions, peppers, garlic and all remaining ingredients to a large pot and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.  At this point you can serve as is or puree.  I like using my hand-held immersion blender and blending the majority of the soup.
  4. Remove from heat and serve.  Great topped with chopped cilantro and avocado.

Watermelon Gazpacho

22 Jun

I’ve been eyeing the Watermelon Gazpacho soup in Raw Food, Real World for a while.  The problem is we seem to eat watermelons as fast as I cut them, so I never have an extra 4 cups of watermelon sitting around to use in the soup.

Yesterday I got smart and made the soup as I was carving a fresh watermelon.  It is much easier to put the fresh watermelon straight into the blender than to count on having enough left over after the kids (and adults) in this house have their way with the watermelon tub in the fridge.

ps – Want to ensure you have some watermelon just to yourself?  Mix it with cilantro, tomatoes and green onions into a cold soup.  Your kids won’t touch it….

Watermelon Gazpacho (raw)

 inspired by Raw Food, Real World

3 cups watermelon, seeded and pureed in a high-speed blender
1 cup watermelon, diced small
3/4 cup seeded tomato, diced small (about 1 large or 2 small tomatoes)
1/2 cup peeled, seeded cucumber, diced small
1/2 cup red bell pepper, diced small
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1/2 small jalapeno, seeded and minced
1 scallion, minced
1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
Freshly ground black pepper

In a large glass bowl or container, combine the watermelon puree with the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Refrigerate to chill. This recipe should keep in the refrigerator for up to four days.


It’s like a bowl of summer…. so refreshing……

Are you a watermelon fan?  Do you prefer yours plain or with tomatoes and cilantro?  :)

Vegan Broccoli Cream Soup

7 Feb

My family used to eat at a restaurant called Black Eyed Pea often when I was a kid.  I don’t even know if those restaurants exist anymore.  Do they?  I would always order the baked potato and soup combo.  For the baked potato, I would order the broccoli cheese spud, which was a baked potato topped with broccoli cheese soup.  For the soup, I would order broccoli cheese soup.  So, yes, it was a double broccoli cheese platter, essentially.

I saw a vegan version of a creamy broccoli soup soup in Terry Walter’s Clean Start and used it for inspiration for a vegan broccoli cheese soup for lunch last week.  Here is my modified recipe:

Vegan Creamy Broccoli Cheese-ish Soup

  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 c diced onion
  • 2 Tbsp grapeseed oil
  • 4 c chopped broccoli – stalks and florets
  • 2 c rice milk
  • 1 c oatmeal
  • 1/2 c nutritional yeast
  • 2 c vegetable broth
  • 1 c water
  • miso
  1. Saute the garlic and onion in grapeseed oil until soft in a large Dutch oven.
  2. Add broccoli, rice milk, oats, vegetable broth and water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium. Cover and simmer about 15 minutes, or until broccoli is soft.
  3. Stir in nutritional yeast and blend (I used an immersion blender) to creamy.
  4. If desired, stir in some miso prior to serving.  Don’t boil the miso if you want to maintain the health benefits.

Kid’s Plate:

My Bowl (with miso):

My daughter liked it.  My little guy took one bite and literally spit it out.  2 out of 3 isn’t so bad.

Where did your family like to dine when you were growing up?

 

Creamy Arugula Soup

17 Nov

Last week I picked up a bunch of arugula on a whim at the grocery store.  I’m a crazy one, let me tell you. Woo-hoo!  Others get tattoos on a whim, married in Vegas on a whim, quit a job on a whim.  I, well I buy greens.  Some might say my life is boring, but I say boring is wonderful.  We had a couple of really tough years and I have loved every minute of this boring year.  Well, not the minutes with potty training accidents, or the minutes that I stuck my hand in a blender, but most of the minutes have been as blissfully uneventful as life with two young children can be.

Back to my spontaneiously purchased arugula.  I hereby present…..

Raw Creamy Arugula Soup

3-4 c washed and rinsed arugula leaves
1 medium avocado
1/3 c pine nuts
2 Tb lime juice
2 Tb EVOO
salt to taste
1 c water

Blend all ingredients until smooth and serve.

It tasted a bit like pesto and I may try to make a arugula pesto someday to try over zucchini.  Pine nuts are up there with coconut in the ‘foods I can’t get enough of’ category, so I liked this soup a lot.  It did taste a bit summer-y for me and I think I’ll hold off on making it until the weather warms up.  Which in Texas, may mean tomorrow.

Creamy Carrot Ginger Soup

12 Nov

aka ‘Don’t spill this on your carpet because there are mad amounts of beta-carotene and it is a potent natural color.’

Here in San Antonio we are having cooler weather.  Not cold.  Not even cool.  Cooler, as in 70 is cooler than 95.  So, I’m pretending it is fall and eating fall foods, like soup.

I modified this recipe from Raw Food, Real World. As a side note, I have yet to make a bad recipe from that book.  I just requested it from the library again and am going to copy down some more recipes.  I highly recommend this book.

Creamy Carrot Ginger Soup

  • 1.5 cups carrot juice (I juiced mine, but could use store-bought if not concerned about the ‘rawness’ of the dish)
  • 1/2 medium avocado
  • 2 Tbsp shredded coconut
  • 2 Tbsp lime juice
  • 1 Tbsp agave nectar
  • 1 tsp freshly grated ginger
  • dash of cayenne and salt to taste

Blend all ingredient (I love my vita-mix!) until creamy and smooth.

I topped with additional coconut and avocado.  Very good – I loved the nuanced flavor the ginger, coconut and cayenne added.

Anyone have a raw soup recipe to recommend?

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