Black Bean Soup

I know it's been awhile since I last posted anything. Been really busy with my wife having another kid, a baby girl this time :) helping my wife with her business and such. Here is a quick and easy dinner to make. You can prepare in about 20 mins and have it ready when you want it. Its great for leftovers or have it for a lunch with some crusty bread.

Ingredients

2 Cans of Black Beans - Drained and Rinsed
2 (400g) Cans of Chopped Tomatoes or 1 28oz Can if you are in the US
3 Chicken Broth Cubes
1.5ltr of Water (6 cups of water)
1 Tbsp of Sunflower Oil
1 White onion - Chopped
4 Garlic Cloves - Minced
1pk of Sausages - Sliced
1 Tbsp of Paprika
1 Tbsp of Cumin
Salt
Pepper

First the the water in a pot and start to bring it to a boil. While your waiting on the water to boil chopped your onion, mince you garlic, slice the sausages. Next drain and rinse the Black Beans. Once the water in the pot is boiling add the chicken broth cubes and stir. Heat a frying pan with the oil on medium-high heat, once warmed place your onion, garlic and sausages stirring occansionaly till the sausages are brown enough. Remember not to burn the garlic or onion. While that is happened place the Black Beans in the pot of water then add the tomatoes, spices and salt and pepper to taste. Then add your mix from the frying pan, stir, bring to a boil, then simmer. I simmer for about 2 hours. 1 Hour with the lid on, one with the lid off.

Enjoy :)

Thai-Style Sweet Potato Soup

So tonight I decided to try and make a soup. This is the first one that I have really put together on my own. It came out really nice actually. When I was eating a similar one a few weeks back I told myself I need to create this. It took me a while to get around to it, I finally did today. This can be eaten as an appetizer or a main meal for lunch or dinner. Serve with nice crusty bread.

Ingredients: 

2 Large Sweet Potatoes
2 Large Sweet Onions
2 Tbsp of Brown Sugar
4 Tbsp of Peanut Oil
2 Tbsp of Thai Red Curry Paste
2 Tbsp of Ground Ginger
2 L of Chicken Stock
200ml of Coconut Milk (Half a Can)
Handful of Cilantro (Coriander)
1/2 Cup of Chopped Spring Onion
Juice of 2 Limes

Directions:

Preheat oven to 200C, peel the sweet potatoes and slice in half, do the same for the sweet onions. Place on baking tray, scatter brown sugar and half of the peanut oil over the top of the veg making sure to cover most of the veg. Bake the veg for about 45 mins, making sure to turn the veg a few times throughout them baking. Once baked the veg should be golden brown, caramelized, not black.
Then take a large pot and add the rest of the peanut oil, Thai Red Curry Paste and ginger, cook over a medium heat for about 3 mins. Then add the baked veg and mix. At this point don't worry if the veg isn't chopped etc. Mix the best you can. Next pour in the chicken stock and simmer for 15 mins.

What I did next was I took out all the veg the best I could and placed them in a blender with most of the stock and blended till smooth. Put the smooth mix into another pot, then blend the rest, add all together and stir. Add the coconut milk, stir, simmer for another 3 mins, add the cilantro, sweet onions and lime juice. Serve while warm

Serves about 6

Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

Really quick and easy lunch today. I just made some grilled cheese with fresh sour dough bread and a side of cream of tomato soup. The grilled cheese I made in the oven while the soup was being heated up. This is just a quick and easy lunch for those of you with busy lives. I used fresh from the baker sour dough and an organic cream of tomato soup. If you don't want to make your own you can find a lot of different kinds of course esp you all in the US. Pacific Organic Cream of Tomato is the one I like the best and is pretty easy to find. You can find it at Whole Foods and probably most top end grocery stores.

http://www.pacificfoods.com/our-foods/creamy-soups/organic-creamy-tomato-all-natural-soup This is another favorite of mine as well if you don't want to have cream of tomato http://www.pacificfoods.com/our-foods/creamy-soups/organic-roasted-red-pepper-and-tomato

Ingredients: 

1 Can of Cream of Tomato Soup
Extra Mature Cheddar Cheese
Sour Dough
Butter

Directions:

Heat oven to about 350F (175C). Slice your bread, butter both pieces. Add some cheddar. Once the oven is heated put into oven for about 5-7 mins. Do not put both slices together. Empty soup into pan and warm.

Serve :)