YUMMY BLACK BEAN SOUP RECIPE

Here's a basic recipe riffed off The Silver Palate

Black Bean Soup with Chicken Sausage

Ingredients:
1-pound bag of black beans
(Follow above prep, or somehow soak and cook the beans in a stock you like. What you will need is a pot full of cooked beans with about four inches of broth above the beans.)
Or you could skip all that and crack open four or five cans of black beans. Rinse them and then add to your favorite stock.
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
1 red or yellow pepper, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 zucchini or a hand full of green beans, chopped small
1 large can diced tomatoes
5 links chicken sausage, cut into very small pieces
2 teaspoons cumin
pinch of dried oregano
crushed red pepper, or cayenne
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon sherry
1 tablespoon brown sugar (or white if you don’t have brown, or suconot)
For garnish bowls
Cilantro, finely chopped
lime wedges
grated cheese (cheddar, Monterey jack, or your favorite)
sliced jalapenos
sour cream
Start with the beans and broth in a big soup pot. Add the tomatoes with the juice and put on simmer.
In a deep frying pan pour olive oil to coat bottom. When the oil releases a fruity smell add the crushed red pepper, then the garlic. Let it release, then add the onion. Let it sweat a little, but not brown. Then add the other veggies. Let them sweat a bit. Add cumin and oregano.
Move the veggies over to the side of the pan and add the chicken sausage. Let the chicken sausage brown a bit, then stir it in with the veggies.
After it has cooked a bit, dump the whole load into the soup pot. Cook for about an hour. Add the sherry and the sugar. Cook for another 45 minutes. (If you don’t have this much time, just add the sherry and sugar with everything else.)
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with quinoa, which is delicious scooped right into the bowl, and garnish dishes so people can dress the soup themselves.
This soup is even better the next day.