African Sweet Potato Soup with Peanut Butter and Black Beans

This is a unique soup. The flavor combinations are very unexpected, but it’s the kind of surprise that, after I pondered it for a bit, I decided was a very good one. Especially if you happen to like peanut satay, which we both do, very much.

Poor Titus couldn’t weigh in on the whole combo because he’s not allowed to have peanuts yet.

This recipe comes straight from the Gluten-Free Goddess, except I used all black beans because I don’t like Black-Eyed Peas. I’ve tried ’em, and I don’t like ’em. If you happen to try this, let me know what you think!

African Sweet Potato Soup with Peanut Butter and Black Beans

1 tablespoon light olive oil or peanut oil

1 tablespoon red or green Thai Kitchen curry paste

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon [I used less cinnamon because I tend to prefer less cinnamony-flavors in my savory food]

1 medium red onion, peeled, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium sweet potato or yam, peeled, diced

1 large yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded, diced

1 jalapeño or other hot chile pepper, seeded, diced fine

3 14-oz. cans black beans

1 quart light broth

1/2 cup 100% natural peanut butter melted in a half cup of boiled hot water (for one cup total)

1/2 teaspoon crushed hot red pepper flakes, or more, to taste

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Juice from 1 big juicy lime

2-3 teaspoons organic brown sugar or raw agave nectar, to taste

Sea salt and black pepper, to taste

For garnish:

Chopped fresh cilantro or parsley

Heat the light olive oil in large soup pot. Add the curry paste and cinnamon; stir for a minute to infuse the oil with spice. Add the onion, garlic, sweet potato, yellow pepper and jalapeño. Stir and cook the veggies for 5-7 minutes, until softened.

Add the black-eyed peas, white and black beans, broth, melted peanut butter, red pepper flakes and cilantro.

Bring the soup to a high simmer, cover, and lower the heat; keep the soup on simmer and cook until the vegetables are tender, about 25 to 30 minutes.

Stir in the lime juice and brown sugar or agave. Season with sea salt and ground pepper, to taste. Warm through and taste for seasoning adjustments.

Read more: http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2006/02/african-bean-sweet-potato-soup.html#ixzz1d8azoZ4u

#BlackBeans #PeanutButter #SweetPotato

Curried Coconut Butternut Squash Soup

It’s soup season again!  Which, hopefully, means that I will be back at the soup blog more regularly. I have, in fact, made a number of soups recently, and I have a super easy one simmering in the crock pot now.

This one, however, I made about a month and a half ago, and it’s a little bit of a stretch for me to remember what I did for it. I do remember that it was delicious (even my 9 month old gobbled it down!) and that I wanted to make a record of it. I used this recipe as my base, but I wanted to add more depth of flavor as my Cook’s Illustrated for that month had indicated (no link, but I’ll describe it), and I also wanted to add coconut milk … because anything with curry tastes better with coconut.

The basic idea for deepening the flavor of the squash is that instead of sauteeing it or simmering it, as many recipes call for, or roasting it, which is time-consuming and a little messy (and heats up your house, and I made this at a time when that was more of a consideration), you are going to treat the squash just like you treat the onions for French Onion soup. In other words, you’ll cook them in a little oil or butter over medium to medium-high heat and let them get really deeply browned. Don’t worry if you get lots of brown chunks stuck to the bottom of your pan — there’s a technical term for the brown bits, the “frond,” and that’s where the flavor is getting developed. So, to start this recipe, cut your butternut squash into 1-1 1/2″ cubes and start sauteeing in olive oil. Let the side that’s cooking get nice and brown, and then give the pan a good scrape (you might want to add a little water to get the chunks up – this is called “deglazing”), and then let it brown again (the water should evaporate quickly). Do this for a while until your squash is pretty well cooked and you’ve got a deep brown bunch of squash gunk in the bottom of the pan (Cook’s Illustrated said this a lot more eloquently than I just did, but that’s really what they meant).

Then add your onions and garlic, let them saute until soft but not browned. Then add your curry powder and stir it around for a minute or so, until it’s fragrant. Then add your coconut milk and chicken broth, salt and honey, and let it simmer – give it at least 15 minutes, but this is really flexible, so you can simmer it over low heat for quite a while if need be. Puree with an immersion blender or in batches in your blender.

We ate it with brown rice and some chopped cashews on top.

Ingredients

1. 1 tablespoon canola oil

2. 1 (2 1/2-pound) butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch cubes

3. 1 medium onion, chopped (about 2 cups)

4. 2 cloves garlic, minced

5. 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth

6. 1 can (14 oz) coconut milk (light is fine)

7. 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons curry powder (or more, to taste)

8. 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more, to taste

9. 2 tablespoons honey

10. 4 teaspoons plain low-fat yogurt, for garnish

Directions

Heat oil over medium heat in a 6-quart stockpot. Add butternut squash and cook until deeply browned, as described above. Add onions and garlic and saute until soft but not brown, about 6 to 7 minutes. Add the broth, coconut milk, curry powder and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until squash is tender, about 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat stir in honey and puree with an immersion blender or in batches in a blender until smooth. Season with salt, to taste.

#butternut #coconut #curry

Cream of Tomato Soup — fast and easy!

Today is one of those transition-to-spring days.  Warm enough to tantalize you, but cold enough that you wouldn’t want to stay outside for long.  I thought it seemed like a soup-for-lunch day.  JR thought it seemed like a sandwich (with melted cheese) day.  What’s the perfect meet-in-the-middle lunch?  Tomato soup with grilled cheese, of course!

I did a quick search for recipes that I could make quickly and with ingredients I had on hand.  I settled on this recipe … some day I’d love to have my own standard, go-to, throw-it-together tomato soup recipe.  This was good but, to be honest, it wasn’t “it.”  Not sure what it was missing; maybe it would have been better if I’d followed the recipe, but I didn’t have celery seed or even any of the substitutes that I googled for celery seed.  I also used regular-acid tomatoes and substituted evaporated milk for the half-n-half and regular milk.

This was very tasty, though; I’ll definitely make it again and maybe try to follow the recipe. You can’t beat a very tasty soup made with common ingredients and thrown together in 10 minutes, regardless of the time of year.

Tomato Soup

1. 28 ounces, fluid San Marzano Crushed Tomatoes [I used regular canned, chopped tomatoes]

2. 1 cup Half-and-half [I substituted 1 12-oz can of evaporated milk for the half-and-half and the milk]

3. 1 cup Milk

4. 2 teaspoons Dried Basil

5. 1 teaspoon Dried Granulated Onion

6. ½ teaspoons Celery Seed

7. ½ teaspoons Kosher Salt

8. ½ teaspoons Finely Ground Black Pepper

9. Basil Oil, To Drizzle Over Soup [I omitted this, but you could definitely use it and make the meal quite a bit more fancy]

Combine all ingredients together in a medium saucepan and heat, stirring occasionally.  Puree with an immersion blender.  Drizzle with basil oil and serve.

#tomato #quickandeasy #creambased