Once Upon a Plate: Beans

Friday

Smoky Black Bean Soup

No matter how many pictures I click, it's fairly difficult to make black bean soup look attractive. :p
My suggestion is to serve it in your favorite bowls or mugs and garnish it with whatever seems appropriate. Once your family or guests taste it they'll forget all about how it looked before they began eating it. ;)

I garnished with grated cheddar, scallions and cilantro. Sour cream and/or diced avocado (or ripe tomatoes) would be very good, too. This time instead of my usual black bean soup I chose this one, and tweaked it just a little bit.
It was delicious! I actually like this soup better the next day, but it tasted very good right after preparing it.
You can cook your own black beans, or do as the recipe suggests and just get your can opener out, and the soup can be on the table in about 40 minutes.

~*~*~*~*~

These are the changes I made to the recipe:
> Reduced the bacon to 6 strips (my bacon was extra thick cut)
> Used only 3 cans of black beans (because that's what I had on hand)
> Omitted Chili Powder and added a scant tablespoon of homemade taco seasoning (I usually always have this in the pantry, it's so inexpensive to make, and it tastes better, too.)
> Skipped the ketchup and added a tablespoon of agave nectar and a tablespoon of tomato paste instead.
> Tossed a bay leaf in while ingredients were simmering.
> When the soup was finished simmering I stirred in about 1 1/2 teaspoons red wine vinegar. (Adds a nice bright note to the beans)
If you add cooked rice to the soup (with a little extra chicken broth), voila! You have a complete protein.

The original recipe over on Food Network has received over 300 Five-star reviews (so you may just want to go with that one.)
However, my tweaked version was declared a winner here, so I'll definitely keep it in my rotation.
If you give it a try I don't think you'll be disappointed, and it tastes so good on a cold winter day (or evening!)
Thank you for stopping in today friends.
Blessings to you and your loved ones.
~mari . . . xo

Thursday

Tequila-Lime Grilled Chicken

We're savoring the last bit of the warm weather of the year, so the outdoor grill is getting quite a workout. Actually we grill year round (when it's not raining), but honestly, for me, it's a lot more enjoyable when the weather is warm. :)
I made this a few nights ago ~ I think this is the second or third time I've made this chicken recipe (from Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa). Ina suggests using boneless, skin on chicken ~ I had boneless-skinless so that's what I used, and just cut the grilling time so they would still be moist.
The marinade is also wonderful for grilled shrimp, too which I've done before. But I happened to have a few uncooked shrimp from the previous evenings meal so I marinated those, threaded them on skewers and placed them on the grill a few minutes before the chicken was done. (Cluck and Surf, anyone?)

Usually if I'm using black beans in a salad for example, I'll just use canned, but The Pioneer woman recently shared this recipe for Refried Black Beans, cooked from scratch, as well as the one for the Mexican-Style Rice Casserole and they are actually quite good. However, I didn't "refry" the beans, just served them out of the pot.
I tweaked the rice recipe by cutting some fresh corn off the cob and stirred it in, just because I love corn in Mexican-style rice... it's a textural thing! (A little bit of turmeric gives the rice a nice golden yellow color.) The recipe makes 12 servings, so it would be good for a large family or gathering. I reduced the recipe by a third, and there was enough to accompany another meal for the two of us.
Of course you can just scoop the rice onto the plate; this time I lined a couple of oval ramekins with plastic wrap (with a little extra wrap hanging over the rim all the way around, filled the ramekins with the warm rice, pressing down gently, flipped the filled ramekins over onto the plates the removed the plastic wrap ~ it makes a neat presentation and takes only moments if you have just a few plates to serve.