Crockpot Black Bean Soup with Sun-Dried Tomato Polenta Cakes

I made the most incredible and easy curry the other night that I can't wait to share with you. I realize this has nothing to do with black bean soup, but I just HAD to tell you about it.

Unfortunately, the picture I took was somewhat horrific. I really need to work on improving my photography skills. At any rate, it's going to have to wait. I'm making another batch today just to have on hand... so it won't be long before I get the opportunity to share.

In the meantime, here is a basic but delicious black bean soup that I made this weekend for Miss M and I's date night, which we spent watching many episodes of the Cake Boss and stuffing our faces with Mango Sticky rice (it seems we can't get enough of this stuff.)

We ate our black bean soup with sun-dried tomato polenta cakes. If you've never had polenta, you're in for a treat (although Sweets might disagree, I love it) . It's so filling and satisfying, and goes exceptionally well with this soup if you ask me.

We have some rainy-chilly-ness going on where I live today. Perfect weather for a warm-you-up-dish like this.

For those of you polenta newbies, let me explain what goes down with cooking it:
Right after making polenta, it is a creamy consistency (which I find to be delicious for a savory breakfast), but after refrigerated becomes firm. I made polenta for breakfast while getting my soup crockpot ready from this recipe I found at Cadry's kitchen, then refrigerated the leftovers, sliced, and fried to serve with dinner that night.

Here's what you'll need for your polenta:

STONE GROUND POLENTA. VEGGIE BROTH. NON-DAIRY MILK. NUTRITIONAL YEAST. SUN-DRIED TOMATOES. GREEN ONION. 

~ Bring 2 Cups Veggie broth to boil. Add in 1/2 Cup Polenta. Bring to boil and whisk for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

~ When all the liquid is absorbed, stir in 1 T Nutritional Yeast Flakes, 1/4 C non-Dairy milk, 2 T Chopped sun-dried tomatoes, one chopped green onion, and salt and pepper to taste.

~ Eat some for breakfast if you like. Yum. Then spread the remaining (don't eat it all!) in a squarish dish (for easy slicing later) and refrigerate.

On to the soup.

You will need:

BLACK BEANS. ONION. BELL PEPPER. CELERY. GARLIC. JALAPENO. CARROTS. PARSLEY. OREGANO. CUMIN. CORIANDER. THYME. FIRE ROASTED TOMATOES. CRUSHED TOMATOES. CILANTRO. 

~ I used dried beans for this because they're super cheap, and I think they have a better bite to them. However, this takes a little advanced prep time. Dried beans need to be soaked over night, or if you fail to plan ahead like i do, you can quick soak which will go like this:

Put 1 1/2 Cups dried black beans into a large stock pot and cover with cold water. Bring to boil. Remove from heat, cover and let sit for 1 hour.

~ Drain your soaked beans, return to pot and add 6 cups fresh water. Boil for one hour.

~ Pour beans and their liquid into crockpot along with 1 diced onion, 1 diced red bell pepper, 1 stalk diced celery, 1 diced jalapeno, 2 diced carrots, 2 T dried parsley, 2 T oregan, heaping T of cumin, 2 tsp coriander, 2 tsp thyme, 1 tsp black pepper, 1 c veggie broth, and 1 cup fire roasted tomatoes.

~ Cook on low for 6 hours. If you like your soup kind of creamy, you can use an immersion blender to blend up some of the beans at this point.

~ Before serving, stir into crockpot 3/4 Cup crushed tomatoes and a couple Tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro. This will give the soup a loverly fresh flavor. Then salt to taste.  Turn up to high while preparing your polenta cakes.

~ Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a cast iron skillet and add sliced cold polenta. Fry until golden brown and heated through. Now you got yourself some polenta cakes!

Enjoy! 

I think I'm going to use my soup leftovers to make black bean nachos... 

Tweet

Cream of Roasted Potato Soup with Fennel

I've been loyal to my grandmother's Cream of Potato soup recipe for years. I feel kinda bad about making this one instead. Mostly, because I like it better.

Although my late g-ma's soup was delicious, it was laden with salt and cream and bacon and butter. Lot's of butter. So much butter, that you could see it floating on top of the pot and had to give the soup a good juooshz (aka stir. I don't know.) before serving so as not to get a ladle full of butter. This soup on the other hand has only a couple drizzles of olive oil, a bit of healthy Earth Balance butter, and LOADS of flavor.

I got the inspiration for this soup from Isa Chandra (not to be confused with Chandra Nicole) She's lived on a Earthfood based diet for 20 years,  has a website called Post Punk Kitchen, has written many cookbooks, and is kind of a Rock Star in the Vegan Community.
She recently moved to Omaha, Nebraska (50 minutes away from me) and rumor has it that she might be opening a Vegan restaurant there. (woot!) I figured I should probably turn to an expert as a launch pad for many of my replacement "creamy" dishes.. since I mostly have no idea what in the hell I'm doing.

This soup pretty much rocked our world. And it was SOUPER simple to make. 

I'm funny.

You will need:

EARTH BALANCE BUTTER. GARLIC. CELERY. RED ONION. WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR. YUKON GOLD POTATOES. FENNEL. ALMOND MILK. VEGGIE BROTH. GREEN ONIONS.

~ Preheat oven to 425

~ Cut 2 lbs potatoes into 1 inch cubes. If you use yukon gold, there is no need to even peel them. I'm not gonna lie, I didn't wash them either... I was probably the kid on the playground eating handfuls of dirt. 

Place on a baking sheet, drizzle with Olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 15 minutes.

~ Meanwhile, cut the greens off the fennel, cut the bulbs in half long ways, and then cut into thick slices like you might an onion.  Set aside.

This is Fennel, if you're thinking what the frick is a fennel bulb!? like I was only one month ago. I knew what fennel SEEDS were. Oi! so much to learn.

 This is the fennel forest... according to Miss M.

~ After the potatoes have been baking for 15 minutes, add fennel slices to the same baking pan with the potatoes. Roast for 45 more minutes stirring around every 15 minutes.

~When there's 15 minutes baking time left, add to a Dutch Oven one diced red onion,  2/3 Cup celery, and a drizzle of olive oil. Saute'on stove top over medium heat til tender. Add 1 T. Earth Balance Butter and 1 T whole Wheat flour and stir together to make a rue.

~ Add 2 Cups Almond milk and 2 Cups Vegetable Broth. Simmer to heat through and thicken slightly. Then add roasted potatoes and fennel. 

~ With an immersion blender, cream the soup leaving lots of big chunks o' potato. 

~ Stir in 2 sliced green onions, and 1 T reserved chopped fennel greens.

Mmmmm.... creamy. 

Do you have any recipes from the 'days of ole' that are in desperate need of a healthy make over?

Tweet