Black Bean Soup with Tender Potato Biscuits

Black Bean Soup with Tender Potato Biscuits

Soup is the epitome of comfort, that wonderful soul warming food filled with wholesome ingredients and fantastic flavours. On a cool day like today it seems the perfect way to have a pot of  the gastronomic version of a warm blanket purcolating on the stovetop filling the room with its intoxicating fragrance that says "you are home". 

As the cook, homemade soup allows me complete mastery over what goes into each recipe, and the methods and techniques used to create delicious and nutritious dishes. Todays soup come partly from the necessity of cleaning out the fridge and partly from wanting to enjoy a steamy bowl of heady goodness. No one will know that your inspiration came from leftover mashed yams, potatoes, and a myriad of leftover vegetables.

Back to the Future....

Over four years of blogging I have found many wonderful recipes to share on these pages. Some from my own kitchen, some from your creative blogs and web sites, and some from well known celebrities and chefs. I have been feeling a little nostalgic and was browsing these very pages just the other day, creeping back to the very beginning in 2006 when More Than Burnt Toast was in it's infancy and no more than "knee high to a grasshopper". We all have those stellar recipes from when we first started when we were lucky enough to find one comment and have maybe one reader; in my case even before I was taking photos of the dishes I prepared. My other motivation for reconnecting with the past is to create uniform formatting on this blog and this is a fun way for me to revisit past posts.

So here are a couple of flashback recipes from the very first baby steps here at MTBT with...

Chocolate Zucchini Cake with Chipotle Chocolate Sauce

Southern Italian Ratatouille Pasta

Summer Spaghetti

The Ultimate Fajitas

French Potato Salad

Tortilla Crusted Chicken Rellenos with Cilantro Sauce

**Black Bean Soup with Tender Potato Biscuits**

•  4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped finely
• 1 medium sweet potato, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces (I used 1 cup leftover mashed sweet potato)
• 1/2 carrot, chopped finely
• 1 celery rib, chopped finely
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 medium garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1/2 - 1 teaspoon chile powder
•  5 - 6 cups chicken stock
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 chipotle chili in adobo sauce
• 1 red bell pepper, roughly chopped
• 3 to 4 tablespoons lime juice
• Salt
• Chopped fresh parsley
• Sour cream

1. Heat olive oil in a large 8-quart thick-bottomed pot on medium high until the oil is hot, but not smoking. Add the onions, celery, carrot (and diced sweet potato if using), and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned and softened, about 10-15 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, add the cumin, chili powder,and garlic, cook for an additional 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

2.  Add chicken stock, bay leaves, chipotle chili in adobo sauce, (add mashed sweet potato if using), and bell pepper. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 to 30 minutes. In last 10 minutes of cooking at black beans.

3. Remove 2- 3 cups of the soup (about half of it) to a blender. Purée until smooth and return to the pot of soup. (You may need to purée the soup in smaller portions, depending on the size of your blender. Don't fill the blender more than half way at a time and hold the lid while blending.) Alternatively blend remaining soup in pot with immersion blender until smooth and then add other haldf of soup back to pot. Add 3 tablespoons of lime juice. Adjust seasonings. If on the sweet side, add a bit more lime juice. Salt to taste.

4. Serve sour cream and parsley.

Makes 8 cups. Serves 6.

Note that the soup may continue to thicken. If you would like it thinner, just add some water to desired consistency.

**Tender Potato Biscuits**

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, refrigerated
• 1 1/2 cups leftover mashed potatoes
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• extra milk for brushing the tops

 1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).

2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Remove butter from refrigerator and grate with box grater into flour nmuxtures. Stir with a fork to coat the butter.  Use a fork to stir in mashed potatoes, breaking them up into chunks. Make a well in the mixture, and pour in egg, and buttermilk. Stir into a loose dough using the fork.

3. Turn dough out onto a floured surface, and knead for 6 or 8 times so the dough holds together. Pat the dough out to about 3/4 inch thickness, and cut into circles with a biscuit cutter or drinking glass. Place biscuits onto an ungreased baking sheet. Brush the tops with a bit of milk.

4. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until bottoms are golden.

Makes 8 biscuits

You are reading this post on More Than Burnt Toast at http://morethanburnttoast.blogspot.com. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to the author and or owner of More Than Burnt Toast. All rights reserved by Valerie Harrison.