Soup...it's what's for dinner!

I didn't take this picture, but I'll try and get one when the black bean soup is done, and I dish it up. (That will be a while yet.) It's already smelling pretty good to me, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will taste as good! I'll post the recipe here now, as well as later at Kitchen Chatter, Deb's cooking blog--she was kind enough to add me as one of the "regular cooks" and contributors!

I got this recipe from eHow. Have you ever used that site? I love it...you can find everything from how to get red wine stains out of the carpet (not that we'd ever need that, hahaha) to how to format a manuscript to send to a publisher, to this recipe for black bean soup in the crock pot! I've found lots of great information on there, but didn't realize they have a recipe section, too. Excellent! I'll provide the recipe, but will add the changes I made (nothing major).

Black Bean Soup

1 16-ounce bag dry black beans, soaked overnight, drained, and rinsed
1 4-ounce can diced green chilies
1 14.5-ounce can petite diced tomatoes (I used regular diced tomatoes)
1 ½ quarts (6 cups) chicken broth (I used sodium-free)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp chili powder
½ tsp ground cumin (I used 1 tsp)
¼ tsp cayenne pepper (I omitted this--I don't like it too spicy)
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper (I just ground up some without measuring--Ken always adds more, anyway)
*I also added 1 lb chopped ham

In a 5-6 quart crock pot, combine presoaked beans, chilies, tomatoes, broth, garlic, and spices. Stir to combine.

Cook on high for 6 hours, then turn down until ready to eat.

When beans are tender enough to mash easily with a fork, taste soup and adjust seasonings. Puree soup for a few seconds with a stick blender to thicken, but leave plenty of whole beans for texture. Alternatively, remove a few cups of the soup to a food processor and process until smooth; return to crock pot and stir in.

The recipe also states that if you don't presoak dried beans, you can substitute 6 cups of canned beans (about 4 16-ounce cans). Rinse and drain canned beans before adding to crock pot, and cook on low instead of high.

I plan on serving this with some bread for dipping, and I'll top mine with a little sour cream and Ken's with a little shredded cheese. Hmm, maybe I'll put a little cheese on top of mine, too! I get to use my stick blender. Yay! Emeril calls it a boat motor.

I added ham, but this could just as easily be a vegetarian soup (and Deb at Kitchen Chatter is a vegan, so she will probably appreciate that!). I'll probably give most of the ham to Ken and keep mine mostly vegetarian. Boy, I'm hungry already!

I commented somewhere the other day that Ken and I have always talked about doing more soups. I think this might be the year. My Mom makes a killer potato soup, and I'd love to do that; Cousin Ros made us tortilla soup when we were visiting a couple of years ago; and I've made beef vegetable soup and beef stew before and both turned out really well. I think I'm going to start looking for some more soup recipes, both in my cookbooks and online.

Borscht, anyone?