black bean soup

Black bean soup

I'm not sure how many of the skills I learned in college I could pull out of my pocket today. Regression analysis? Nope. A letter of introduction written in Japanese? Forget about it. Calculus. Very funny.

Black bean soup, on the other hand, I remember. Black bean soup was the college favorite, made by every one of my friends whenever we gathered to watch 90210 or study the political economies of Southeast Asia until 2 a.m.

The soup had every important requirement for college cooking; it was cheap, stretchable and forgiving, not to mention delicious. Sometimes we boiled our own beans. More often it was canned beans added to sautéed scallions and garlic (I'm not sure why we used scallions, but we all did), some kind of broth and a little lime juice and cilantro at the end.

After college, black bean soup fell out of my repertoire -- forgotten along with 90210 and most of the details of Korea's path to industrialization. I moved on to staples of braised chicken and sukiyaki and mozzarella and tomato salads. When there was a free moment for TV, I rented The Wire.

But lately life's been a bit complicated, and I've found myself once again in need of cheap, stretchable and forgiving.

So last week, I made black bean soup for the first time in years. (No, I have not started watching 90210 reruns, but now that I think of it, it is kind of tempting.)

The dish came back as easily as if I were still an awkward half-girl half-woman who played the occasional game of rugby and couldn't figure out what to do with her life. Of course, I have a bigger spice drawer now, so I tried to update things a bit.

Prep:

I had a bag of dried black beans in the pantry, so I put them in a big pot of cold water to soak over night. The next night after dinner, I boiled them for a few minutes and then threw out the water. I started over with fresh water -- about 4-5 inches above the beans and brought it to a boil again. This time, I let them simmer with a few left over steak bones that I had in the freezer, a bay leaf, an onion and couple of limp carrots that I found in bottom of the vegetable bin. After a couple of hours, I turned the heat off, picked out the veggies and bones, let the beans cool a bit and stuck them in the fridge.

Then the next day, I pulled out The Silver Palate to see what I might do. There was a nice looking recipe for black bean soup, but I didn't have half the ingredients, or the time required. So I stole a few of the seasoning ideas (garlic, oregano, a little sugar, cumin, and sherry, and reached back to my college days for lime and cilantro.)

We enjoyed the soup the first night and it improved in the fridge, getting tastier each night. When we had unexpected guests, we pulled out the soup pot and served the leftovers with bowls of steaming quinoa on the side. Three days later it was gone, and I'd made it through a tough couple of days without blowing the budget on take out or cooking meals I was too stressed out to enjoy. My kids like to sprinkle, so I put out bowls of grated cheese, jalapenos and cilantro. (Only my son and I ate the jalapenos.)

Here's a basic recipe riffed off The Silver Palate

Black Bean Soup with Chicken Sausage

Ingredients:

1-pound bag of black beans
(Follow above prep, or somehow soak and cook the beans in a stock you like. What you will need is a pot full of cooked beans with about four inches of broth above the beans.)

Or you could skip all that and crack open four or five cans of black beans. Rinse them and then add to your favorite stock.

5 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
1 red or yellow pepper, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 zucchini or a hand full of green beans, chopped small
1 large can diced tomatoes

5 links chicken sausage, cut into very small pieces

2 teaspoons cumin
pinch of dried oregano
crushed red pepper, or cayenne
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon sherry
1 tablespoon brown sugar (or white if you don’t have brown, or suconot)

For garnish bowls

Cilantro, finely chopped
lime wedges
grated cheese (cheddar, Monterey jack, or your favorite)
sliced jalapenos
sour cream

Start with the beans and broth in a big soup pot. Add the tomatoes with the juice and put on simmer.

In a deep frying pan pour olive oil to coat bottom. When the oil releases a fruity smell add the crushed red pepper, then the garlic. Let it release, then add the onion. Let it sweat a little, but not brown. Then add the other veggies. Let them sweat a bit. Add cumin and oregano.

Move the veggies over to the side of the pan and add the chicken sausage. Let the chicken sausage brown a bit, then stir it in with the veggies.

After it has cooked a bit, dump the whole load into the soup pot. Cook for about an hour. Add the sherry and the sugar. Cook for another 45 minutes. (If you don’t have this much time, just add the sherry and sugar with everything else.)

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with quinoa, which is delicious scooped right into the bowl, and garnish dishes so people can dress the soup themselves.

This soup is even better the next day.

posted October 1, 2007 | link | comments (4)

filed under: Ingredients, Recipes

AllOverAlbany.com

Comments

yum! cave in to the 90210, you won't be sorry. the current weekday cycle is in the college years! oh donna...

- by renee on Oct 1, 2007 at 7:46 PM | link

I never really liked Donna that much. I liked Andrea (of course).

- by celinabean on Oct 2, 2007 at 9:22 PM | link

Hi Celina,
I never watched 90201 but your Black bean soup recipe inspired me to try it. I modified it slightly using chorizo sausage and skipped the crushed red pepper (there was enough heat from the chorizo) and sherry. It came out great, a nice bowl with a dollop of sour cream is a meal in itself!

- by Jeff on Oct 4, 2007 at 2:51 PM | link

Wow, that sounds great.

- by celinabean on Oct 5, 2007 at 9:30 AM | link

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