In an effort to improve my health, I've decided to start making a point of preparing myself something good to eat everyday for the next seven days and to blog about it.
Todays treat is Black Bean & Sweet Potato Soup.
I always look around both in my recipe book collection and online before cooking these days, and it appears that some people consider this recipe to be a detox one, so hey, there's a bonus (if you believe in the whole detox thing, I'm not 100% convinced there).
I soaked (overnight) and then cooked about 250g of dried black beans which I will use in this recipe, but I'm sure a couple of tined black beans would save time if you prefer. (2 Cups of cooked beans if you are using american measures, and 1 pint is slightly over 500ml )
Ingredients:
Cooked black beans.
3 sweet potatos, peeled and roughly diced
2/3 cloves of garlic, crushed with garlic press
1 red onion, finely chopped by hand
1 veg stock cube, dissolved in 1 pint of hot water
1 pint of water
olive oil
Ras el Hanout (spice mix) about 2 teaspoons
salt
pepper
1 lime
And some creamed coconut & a fresh red chillie, for an alternative version from the same pot!
I always start by peeling and chopping everything and tidying the peelings before getting the cooking pots out. Saves time and effort later and also prevents you from "forgetting" that you were out of a key ingredient before you commit!First heat up a little olive oil in a large pan over a medium heat, once its warm, add the chopped onion, and then turn the heat down a bit, take your time with onions to bring out the sweetness and cook until they clarify without browning,this is sometimes called "sweating" them, but I don't call it that (cos, well, yuck frankly!).
Once they seem done (& experience tells me onions are better under-done than over at this stage in soup making!) , add the sweet potato and stir so that everything is mixed and coated in the olive oil , then add the crushed garlic and spices.
Cook together for 1-2 mins or so to take the rawness out of the garlic & spices, and enjoy the wonderful smell that starts to fill your kitchen, but be careful that the garlic doesn't brown, or else it tastes bitter.
Now we can add the black beans and the prepared stock. Followed by another pint of plain water. Turn the heat to medium and bring up to a simmer, then cook for 20-30 mins, or until the sweet potato is completely cooked through.
Once the potato is cooked, it then becomes a choice of how smooth, and how spicy!
In my kitchen, out comes the trusty (allbeit ancient) Braun handblender, simply pop it into the soup, and blend away, being careful to avoid any spashback. Continue until you've reached the smoothness you prefer.
As this amount is about four portions, remove all but one portion at this stage (into a bowl, cool, then cover and fridge/freezer until needed), and season what's to be eaten now with salt and pepper (personally I leave out the salt). Reheat gently if needed and serve into a bowl, squeezing in some lime juice and finishing off with a little finely grated lime zest.
In this blog picture, I have used lime juice -from a bottle shhh!, and lemon zest, as I used the last lime yesterday.
