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We have a new soup to add to our Fall Menu.  Our family has a thing about soups. We’re ever so slightly, but not enough to be hospitalized, certifiably, and rather proudly-obsessed with soups.  Just follow this blog over the fall and winter and it will speak for us.

I found this recipe in a new cookbook.  Besides the obvious draw of being a soup, it also called for both sweet and white potatoes, which were sitting together in our csa basket as I flipped through the cookbook.  The combination of vegetables and flavors was new to me but I’m happy to report, a zinging success.  An excellent first fall dish of the season and not just loved by my own stomach, but by a handful of voices around the table shouting, “Let’s add this to the fall menu!”

Chicken, Potato, and Black Bean Soup
serves 6

• 4 cups chicken broth
• 4 cups water
• 4 medium-size russet potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 medium-size sweet potato, peeled and cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 2 cups chicken cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 medium-size onion, finely chopped
• 2 ribs celery, thinly sliced
• 2 tsps dried oregano
• 2 tsps ground cumin
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp dried sage
• 2 tbs seeded and diced green chiles(optional)
• 15 ounce can black beans, undrained
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• Sour cream and taco chips

1. Bring broth and water to boil in a soup pot; add potatoes and boil ten minutes.
2. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add chicken and cook until it turns opaque. Add onion and celery; cook, stirring a few times, until vegetables are soft.  Add oregano, cumin, cayenne, sage, and green chiles.  Stir to combine and cook 1 to 2 minutes longer.
3. Add mixture from skillet into soup with boiling potatoes. Reduce heat to medium and add black beans including liquid in the can.  Simmer soup until potatoes are tender.  If soup get too thick, you can add another 1 to 2 cups brother later to cooking time.
4. When potatoes are done, stir in lime juice.  Season with salt and pepper. Serve hot with sour cream and taco chips.

Notes: Next time I won’t use two pans.  I can’t see any reason not to go ahead and do step 2 in the soup pot, and then add the broth, water, and potatoes and continue on with the recipe.  I also think you can cook the onions and herbs right when the chicken starts cooking, not after.  I skipped the celery, green chiles, and cayenne(we have mild palates at our house), but next time I’ll throw in a can of green chiles.  I also added more cumin and sage to enhance the flavor.  The rest of the fam enjoyed the sour cream, but I didn’t miss it in my dairy free bowl.  We topped our soup with Trader Joe’s Vegetable and Flaxseed Tortilla chips-great color and taste.  Don’t skip the lime juice.

The cookbook: The recipe came from Family Feasts for $75 a Week by Mary Osten. I’ve read several books in this genre and even though they usually have good tips for cutting costs on the food bill, I haven’t found them to be a mecca of good recipes. Hence, my surprise when I found myself salivating as I flipped the the recipes in Osten’s book.  With a family of six and one income, I’m looking for ways to save money.  But we also like quality, fresh, flavorful, healthy food and usually those elements are sacrificed in cost-cutting books. But in Family Feasts, she uses fresh vegetables, non-processed foods, and the recipes read like ones found in my other cookbooks.  Atleast, I hope so, since this is the first recipe I’ve made.  (side note: I was chagrined to find the customary salmon and tuna chowder recipes, but I’m not going to let that hold me back from the 198 other recipes and cost-cutting information)

 I think pretty soon I’ll have to change this blog title to Abundant Soup in the Making!

Before we started this blog, I knew we liked soup, but not until I started looking through our posts, did I realize quite how much we cook soup at our house.

However, I’m not tired of it.  And I haven’t heard any rebels from the family shouting “Down with the soup”, so I think we’ll stick with more warm bowls of flavorful goodness.

We discovered the idea for this soup at our favorite stop in the Art District of Chattanooga at Rembrandt’s coffee shop.  In addition to amazing pastries, they have savory soups and pressed sandwiches.  After devouring a bowl of their Tomato-Artichoke soup, I came home and searched for something similiar to make here.  

Matt requested this one for the lunch part of his birthday menu.

Tomato-Artichoke Soup

• 4 tbs butter or olive oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 tbs minced garlic
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 15 oz can artichoke hearts, coarsely chopped
• 28oz can chopped tomatoes, with juices
• 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 cup sour cream

Heat butter or olive oil and saute the onion for 5 minutes until soft.  Add the garlic and thyme and saute another minute.  Add artichoke hearts, tomatoes, broth, salt, and pepper.  Cover; simmer for 30 more minutes.  Add the sour cream, stir well and simmer for 5 more minutes. Taste for seasoning.  

Aimee’s notes: We use marinated artichokes(drained) for an extra kick to the soup. I’ve tried it both ways and prefer the marinated over the plain.  Matt recommends serving with some bread or a roll, but then again, he thinks bread is good served with a slice of bread!

Everyone in our house loves black bean soup.  Well, except the boy.  He doesn’t like anything that resembles a bean, so it’s always a sad night for him.  Tonight’s bean soup was inspired by the tomato cocktail we received in our farm csa this week, it replaced the v8 juice in the recipe below.  

One version goes in the crockpot, one on the stove.  One gets thicker with some pureeing action, and one has a little kick with rotel tomatoes.  Both taste good with some cornbread to sprinkle on top!

Crockpot Black Bean Soup

• optional-1 1b ground beef
• I large can V8 Juice
• 1 can stewed tomatoes
• 2 cans shoepeg corn(I use frozen)
• 3 cans black beans, drained
• 1 envelope Italian Dressing Mix
• 1 small can Rotel Tomatoes(I use mild)

Mix all ingredients together in crock pot and turn on low. Let heat all day and enjoy.

Aimee’s Notes: I usually do add the meat(brown first before adding if you do), but for the first time I made it tonight without the meat, and it was still great(and less expensive with less fat).  

Black Bean Soup Part 2

• 1 cup salsa
• 2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 tsp lime juice
• 2 tbs chopped fresh cilantro(or 2 tsp dried)
• Sour Cream(optional)

1. Heat salsa in large saucepan over med heat, stirring often, for about 5 minutes. Stir in the beans and broth.  Bring mixture to boil, then lower the heat and simmer the soup, covered, for 15 minutes.
2. Let the soup cook slightly, then ladle half of it into a food processor or blender and puree it.  Return the pureed soup to the pot.  Stir in lime juice and chopped cilantro and heat through.  Top each bowl with dollop of sour cream, makes 4 servings. From The Family Fun Cooking with Kids Cookbook

Aimee’s Notes:  I usually double this recipe, it doesn’t make a big pot and it so delicious.  The lime and the salsa, well, enough said.

What to do with your leftover Black Bean Soup

• Freeze it.
• Give it to friend in need with some cornbread on the side.
• Eat it over baked potatoes the next day.
• Put it in burritos or quesadillas. 

That’s right-another soup/chili.  We are unashamedly a family who likes a big pot of warm, flavorful goodness.

In addition to loving soups, we also love finding ways to use our winter csa vegetables. When I first saw this recipe in a magazine, I felt skeptical of the cauliflower and other very harvest-y elements.  I thought we’d be making it as “useful” recipe, but not one that we would really like.  But we tried it and loved it.  And loved the 2nd and 3rd helpings as well.

So give it a try, you might like it.

Harvest Chili

• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chipotle chile powder(I used regular chile powder)
• 2 cans(28 ounces each) whole tomatoes in puree
• 1 medium cauliflower, cut into florets(about 4 cups)
• 2 medium sweet potatoes(about 1 pound) peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 4 large  carrots, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch coins
• 1 large green bell pepper, cored, seeded and cut into  1/2 inch dice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 can (15 oz) Mexican chili beans(I used regular mild chili beans for lack of finding the mexican)
• Sliced scallions, to garnish
• Cooked brown rice, optional

1. Saute onions in olive oil for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in cumin and chile powder, cool 1 minutes.  Stir in tomatoes, breaking up with spoon.
2. Stir in cauliflower, sweet potatoes, carrots, green pepper, and salt.  Cover and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 25 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add chili beans and simmer for 5 minutes or until vegetables are fork-tender.
3. Garnish with scallions and serve with brown rice if desired.

Aimee’s notes: The puree with the tomatoes helps create the thicker “chili” base. On another night I used a can with puree and a can without, and it made it more like soup, but still delicious.  Very good with cornbread served on the side or sprinkled on top!

This recipe deserves a mouth-watering picture to tempt you into taking the time to make it, but we ate it too quickly to snap any photos!

It’s a little more involved then throwing everything into the crockpot, but in my opinion, it was much better than any stew I’ve made in the slow cooker. The meat just melted in my mouth, and I loved the roasted veggies as an extra layer of flavor. Make it for a saturday or sunday treat. Your husband(or your pregnant wife) will thank you for it.

Ingredients

• 3 tbs vegetable oil of cooking spray, as needed(I used olive oil)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 to 5 pounds beef chuck, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes(I used less than 2 pounds)
• 2 medium yellow onions, cut into 1 inch dice(I used one)
• 4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
• 1(6 oz) can tomato paste
• 2 tbs all-purpose flour
• 2 tbs soy sauce
• 1(16 oz) can low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 bay leaves
• 6 large red potatoes(I used to white)
• 3 to 4 large carrots
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
• 1 cup frozen peas, thawed(I used frozen butter beans)

1. Adjust the over racks to fit a Dutch Oven or large covered pot.  Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
2. Heat the vegetable oil in large Dutch oven over medium heat.  Generously salt and pepper the beef.  Brown the meat, in stages, so as not to crowd the pan.
3. Remove browned beef to a plate and add onion to pot.  Cook for 5 min. or  until they start to brown.  Add garlic until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.  Add tomato paste, flour, and soy sauce and cook 1 to 2 min.  Add broth and scrape any browned meat bits off the bottom and side of pan.
4. Return beef to pot, add bay leaves, and bring to boil.  Cover pot and place in oven.  Set timer for 6 hours.
5. Chop potatoes and carrots into 1 1/2 inch cubes.  Pile the vegetables into baking dish.  Drizzle with olive oil and herbs, stir to coat.  Cover and place in oven.
6. After 6 hours, remove the meat and vegetables from the oven. Stir peas into stew.  Divide vegetables among bowls. Discard bay leaves and ladle the stew over the vegetables.

I always see recipes for Butternut Squash soup, usually pureed and usually with cream that doesn’t agree with my little boy’s stomach.  So when my friend Ruthie gave me this recipe it seemed like a refreshing change.  Though I confess when I started making it, I was a bit nervous about the outcome-for me or for the rest of the family!

Well, they each took a tentative bite, and then another, and then finished off their bowls, and then asked for seconds!  It’s delicious and it’s SO easy. This is our second time making it in two weeks. No roasting or pureeing and it all goes into the crockpot. Cutting up the squash is the longest step and you can always do that the night before.  Matt and the kids enjoyed it with a dollop of sour cream.

The Recipe

• 1 cup onion, chopped
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cinammon
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 3 cups Butternut Squash, cubes
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 19 oz can cannellini beans, drained
• 14 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 tbs chopped cilantro

Combine in slow cooker.  Cook on high for one hour, then low for 2-3 hours.

Aimee’s notes: I didn’t have onion on hand either time I made the recipe, it still turned out fine.  I used great northern beans instead of cannellini and dried cilantro instead of fresh-thought I’m sure fresh will be great when I have it growing in the yard next summer.