Thursday, May 08, 2008

World Beat Pumpkin Black Bean Soup

Never mind that it's the wrong season for this sort of thing. I just cleaned out my pantry last weekend and was thrilled to be able to make something this delicious, almost entirely from canned goods! It has the unlikely combination of coconut milk and chipotle, but somehow the combination of hot/smoky and sweet/spicy really works.

Ever since I got my handy pressure cooker, I've been making all of my beans from scratch - but I had several cans of black beans in the pantry that I wanted to use up, plus some coconut milk, fire roasted tomatoes and canned pumpkin. I'd been meaning to make pumpkin biscuits ever since last fall but it never did happen, and I'm glad because this soup really was quite exquisite. Here's how to do it:

1 onion - diced
1 shallot - diced
2 jalapenos - diced

Sautee the above in:

2 T. butter and
2 T. coconut oil (or if you don't have coconut oil, you can use olive oil instead)

When the onions start to turn golden, add:

4 cloves garlic - minced
1 t. salt
1/2 t. ground black pepper
1 t. sweet/smoky chipotle paste* OR 1 t. chipotle in adobo sauce

Combine 3 cans black beans and 1 can fire roasted tomatoes and coarsely puree in a food processor or blender. Add this to the onions/garlic/peppers.

Also add 1 can pumpkin puree and 1 can coconut milk, and 3 cups vegetable stock or water.

Stir it well till you get a nice, thick but still soupy consistency. Taste and adjust salt if necessary.

Garnish with sour cream.

*Sweet & smoky chipotle paste is a recipe I got from the Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen cookbook - it involves frying a massive amount of chipotles and then soaking them in sugar water, and pureeing it all with roasted garlic. It's very intense, spicy, smoky, sweet, and lends a depth of flavor like no other!

No comments: