healthy comfort food

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In keeping with the week’s simple and healthy theme, I decided to unearth some of the many dried beans I keep in the pantry for a comforting soup. Though Friday’s weather made it seem like spring was near, I couldn’t get warm this weekend and needed something hearty that could bubble away on the stove while I was working.

black beans

I soaked about two cups of dried black beans in plenty of water overnight, then drained and rinsed them before prepping the rest of the soup ingredients.

I smashed six cloves of garlic and minced them, then added the garlic to some olive oil, starting it on low heat.

garlic

To the garlic, I added my soup’s secret ingredient, Howard’s Hot Pepper Relish. I love the sweet and spicy flavors of this peppery relish, so I put in three heaping tablespoons.

Howard's Hot Pepper Relish

Howard's Hot Pepper Relish

Once I could smell the garlic starting to cook up, I added the softened beans, two cups of water, and half of a bag of frozen sweet corn.

organic sweet corn

I brought everything up to a boil, then brought the heat down to low, letting the soup simmer for over an hour, checking to see if water was needed. You will want to eyeball it and taste the beans to make sure they are cooked all the way through.

black bean soup

To make the soup an even more complete meal, I cooked up some al fresco spicy jalapeno sausage, sliced it into small pieces, and added it to the soup.

spicy chicken sausage

And finally, I added a dollop of Fage 2% Greek yogurt to the top of the soup. This would definitely be fine without the chicken sausage for a vegetarian soup, maybe even with some quinoa or brown rice added to bulk it up.  Delicioso!

I am in a serious weather funk. I can’t warm up, even when I am dancing to my Ke$ha Pandora station or lifting weights, and I feel tired all of the time. I just want to open the windows and to be able to sit in my house without my coat! Can it be spring yet?

Hot pepper relish is a condiment that I love to have around the house. What is your favorite condiment?

Tags: beans, black bean soup, black beans, chicken sausage, cooking, corn, dinner, easy recipes, fiber, garlic, healthy comfort food, healthy eating, healthy recipes, hot relish, Lunch, peppers, soup, vegetarian soup

The original plan for last night’s dinner was to continue using up every morsel of food we have in the house. With a swag bag full of beautiful Muir Glen tomatoes from the Garden at the Cellar/Muir Glen Vine Dining event and chicken drumsticks in the freezer, left over from my chicken adobo night, I set out to make a sort of hunters stew like the stew from Nigella Lawson’s Nigella Express.

I started by thawing the chicken and decided to cook it in vinegar as I did for the adobo recipe. Unfortunately, the chicken looked really wrong when it started cooking. Let’s just say there was a lot of blood, and it just kept coming. . . and so my stew became vegetarian.

Muir Glen

The ingredients: 1 can of tomatoes, 3 cloves garlic, crushed, and chopped finely, 1 can of white beans, rinsed, about 20 teeny tiny potatoes, and about 1/2 cup of orzo

garlic white beans

I know, two different starches in one dish; I was feeling physically pretty blah by the time I started cooking last night. I have been having a lot of fun with my really hard workouts lately, but as a result I don’t think I refuel enough.

I seriously chowed down on this dinner.

orzo

It was quick and simple. I boiled the potatoes in about a centimeter of water until the water was almost boiled away. To that I added the tomatoes, juice and all, a bit more water, and the garlic and cumin. Once everything was at a nice boil, I dropped in the orzo so that it could soak up the tomato goodness. At the very end, I mixed in the white beans, topped with crushed red pepper, and served myself a giant bowl.

hunters stew

Alongside a glass of Travessia Urban Winery Jester, a red blend made right here in Massachusetts, this meal was perfect comfort food and just what I needed to brighten up an exhausted day. Except, I really wanted nachos, and I still do.

I will be back later with a recap of the Boston Wine Expo, and for the rest of this week I will have lots of great guest posts from recipes to travel posts to a virtual tour of a US wine region. And I will be popping in here and there from Ireland to say hello, hopefully, so check back often!

Are you ready for spring yet? Disappointed smile

Tags: comfort food, Food, garlic, health, healthy, healthy comfort food, healthy recipes, nutritious, potatoes, recipe, simple recipes, tomatoes, Vegetarian, white beans

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