Black Bean Soup

Ahhh Valentine’s Day. I feel like this holiday is becoming more of a big deal every year. Then again, maybe I was just too young to really grasp its importance. Well, importance to some people anyway. I don’t know, Valentine’s Day just never was a big thing for me. Why?

1. If someone got me a card, I’d throw it in the corner of my room for 6 months, eventually find it, feel guilty, throw it out, and feel guilty again.
2. If someone got me boxed candy, I wouldn’t eat it because I didn’t like the taste and ingredients in them.
3. If someone got me flowers, they would be dead by the next day.

But the biggest reason was because of the valentine’s cards I’d have to bring to my elementary class. I ABSOLUTELY hated this tradition. The weekend before Valentines Day, you could find me sitting at the kitchen table writing every kid’s name from my class over and over again on scrap paper for hours (no exaggeration here). You see, according to my dad, my handwriting was horrible. And so, he made my practice writing my classmates names until they were “suitable” enough to write on a card. I really started holding grudges against people with long names, such as Christopher, Marcellus, and Anna-Sophia.

Anyway, Valentine’s Day has never made it on my top 5 favorite holiday list. However, please don’t think of me as a total grinch (or what ever equals to an anti-Valentine’s Day person). I still greatly appreciate any gestures people show me. As a kind of contribution to the holiday, I decided to post this recipe. After all, everyone knows the song “beans, beans, good for the heart.” Just ignore the rest of the song (Hey, we’re all above the age of 12 here, right?)

Black Bean Soup

Ingredients: 

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1/2 cup carrots, coined

1 tbsp jalapeño peppers

1 tbsp dried parsley

1 tbsp dried cilantro

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp oregano

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp cayenne

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

3 cans black beans, rinsed and drained

3 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup red wine

3 bay leaves

salt and pepper

hot sauce

Optional: shredded cheese

Directions:

Heat the olive oil in a large pot. Add and sauté the onion and garlic cloves for 5 minutes. Mix in the green bell pepper, carrots, and jalapeño peppers and sauté for an additional 5 minutes. Add in the parsley, cilantro, cumin, oregano, chili powder, garlic powder, cayenne, and red pepper flakes and cook for 15 more minutes. Add in beans, chicken broth, red wine, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and then let simmer, uncovered, for 25 minutes. Remove bay leaves and puree with an immersion blender. Add salt, pepper, and hot sauce to taste. Ladle into bowls and top with cheese, if desired.

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