Depression Soup #1

Black Bean Soup

Hello! This is a soup for when you are feeling sad and can barely peel yourself off the couch. I had everything on hand, except the black beans (who runs out of the this pantry staple in a pandemic!?), but then I lured myself to the bodega to get some dried beans by also buying a bunch of chocolate. However, the bodega did not have a great selection so I ended up with the Pepperidge Farm Nantucket cookies.

I also made Fennel and Dill Chicken Soup this week. It was pretty good if a bit boring; I followed the directions which I rarely do. I like that you chop up a whole lemon and put it in the broth.

For this black bean soup, I sort of looked at this black bean soup and also this one. But mostly you don’t need a recipe with specific measurements. So I’m not going to write anything out! The soup itself is VEGAN, GLUTEN-FREE, SOY FREE, DAIRY FREE. I’m just going to talk you through it. I didn’t pre-soak my beans because I just dragged myself out of the house for the first time in days to get the beans. I did wash them off though and let them sit in 4 cups of water for a few (I measured, which is rare for me).

I chopped up two carrots, an onion, a leek, and like 6 cloves of garlic and sauteed it all in some olive oil. It’s what I had! You could also add celery or peppers or a jalapeño if you had one on hand. Salt lightly. You could do it with a traditional sofrito or whatever. Then I added a chipotle in adobo and let it sizzle in the oil and broke it up with a spoon (once I open I can I keep them in the freezer), then added 2 bay leaves, a palmful of dried oregano, a box of vegetable stock, the beans and water. You could use tomato paste or a couple of anchovies. I want to pause here and say that I am pretty careful to not add anything too acidic too early to the beans. I don’t know if New York City water is that hard (supposedly it’s medium) or my the beans I buy are old, but I’ve had problems with my beans softening before.

In a tip from the Best Black Bean Soup recipe, I hard boiled the beans for 15 minutes then simmered half-covered, I added some wine and salted it properly. Beer would work, or some vinegar or orange juice or whatever. Cook it til you like how cooked the beans are? Hours tho lol it sucks! Maybe a quick spin with an immersion blender (my preference) or break up some beans against the side of pot so it becomes your desired consistency of creamy. See, depression soup—2 hours of feeling like you’re accomplishing something while it simmers with a very low amount of effort. Like, you only even need to be upright for 15 minutes of chopping and 15 minutes of sautéing.

Similar to a chili, the toppings are the actual important part. I went with: pickled red onion (sliced onions salted and squeezed over with lime), toasted cumin in oil like an Indian tadka, sour cream, cilantro, queso fresco, crushed up tortilla chips. Other recommendations: Avocado! Radishes?? Pickled Jalapeños? Plop it on top of some rice? I like cold toppings on top of hot soup. Anyway, that’s all in this soup dispatch.