Black Bean Soup

August 20, 2018  •  Soup

I’m now three weeks into my eight week recovery from gum surgery. That means it’s been three weeks since I’ve chewed anything which has taught me a lot! For instance, chewing is an integral part of enjoying food. Although you can swallow liquid and soft things without chewing, something’s lost in the experience. I’ve also learned that a number of “real foods” (meaning not blended to eat) work ok even if you can’t chew: small curd cottage cheese, medium or rare salmon cut into tiny pieces, spaghetti broken into small pieces and coated with a relatively smooth sauce, mashed potatoes, tuna and egg salad. But I’m still eating a fair amount of blended soups to be sure I can fill up (it’s tedious to eat in small bites without chewing and I tire of it before I’m full). This recipe came about because I found two leftovers in my freezer – a chicken carcass and some cooked black beans. Turns out you don’t need much more to make a great soup!

Black Bean Soup
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Recipe type: Soup
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • 1 chicken carcass
  • Scraps of celery and onion for stock
  • 1 whole carrot, trimmed
  • 1 teaspoon peppercorns
  • 1-2 bay leaves
  • 3 cups cooked black beans (use the juices too!)
  • ½ bunch cilantro
  • Salt and pepper
Instructions
  1. Place the chicken carcass and the celery, onion and carrot in a pot and cover with water, Add peppercorns and bay leaves, cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer and cook for 1 hour to extract the flavor. Strain the solids and set aside to cool.
  2. Return the pot to the stove and bring to a boil; cook until reduced to a nice thick demiglace (you should only have about 2 cups of liquid after reducing).
  3. While the stock is reducing, pick out any pieces of chicken from the carcass and combine them in a pot with the cooked black beans. Dice the cooked carrot from the stock and add it to the black beans, then add 1-2 cups of the demiglace and the cilantro. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, then puree, if desired. Season to taste with salt and pepper and thin with more demiglace if the soup is too thick for your liking.
  4. Freezes well.

 

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