Our Home Works

Somehow we managed to accumulate about 3 pounds of local black turtle beans and the freezer is still ejecting random bags of frozen corn or green beans whenever I open it, so the quest of using our local food stash continues.

I had this recipe from Smitten Kitchen marked in my favorites since the fall when we first roasted our pumpkins.  I was looking for savory pumpkin recipes to add to our current pumpkin repertoire of pumpkin enchiladas, muffins, and sour cream pumpkin tart.  When I read the recipe and looked at the photo on Deb’s site, I thought it would be a winter squash soup with some black beans for texture.  As you can tell from the photo, the color of our soup is dominated by the black beans, so the pumpkin turned out to be in the supporting cast.  But it offered a good performance nonetheless and the sherry didn’t do a bad job either.

It is easily the best black bean soup I have ever made and may be the best black bean soup I have ever tasted.  I hope that you also have leftover pumpkin puree in the freezer so you can enjoy this soup, or you can always buy a can of Libbys.

Before we get to the recipe, I wanted to share my grocery store dilemma when buying a ham for this meal - buy the nitrate free ham from Iowa or the nitrate laden ham from Oregon?  I realize that it could have been easily avoided if I had purchased  a ham from Biancala, Deck Family Farm, or Longs last week.  But I wasn’t that organized and so I went back and forth and finally decided on the nitrate free ham from Iowa.  What would you have done?

The rest of the ingredients are mostly local - the pumpkin was from our CSA farm, and the onions, shallots, garlic, and black beans were all purchased from Eugene Local Foods.

Cuban black bean soup with pumpkin, adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Serves 8-10

Ingredients

1 lb dried black beans, soaked overnight and cooked until done (or 6 cans of black beans)

2 cups tomato puree

1 large yellow onion, finely chopped

1 large red onion, finely chopped

1 cup minced shallot

8 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbsp cumin seed ground

2 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper, freshly ground

1 stick unsalted butter

8 cups beef broth

3 cups pumpkin puree

1 cup sherry (I used 1/2 cup dry and 1/2 cup sweet)

1 lb cooked ham, diced

8 Tbsp sherry vinegar

Sour cream (optional)

Cilantro sprigs for garnish (optional)

Melt butter over medium heat in large dutch oven or stock pot.  Add onions, shallot, garlic, cumin, salt, pepper and cook for 10-15 minutes until onions carmelize.  Meanwhile add beans and tomato puree to food processor and pulse 4-6 times, until combined.  Add bean/tomatoes, broth, pumpkin puree, and sherry to pot.  Cook until soup thickens to desired consistency, 30-45 minutes.  Add ham and sherry vinegar and cook until heated through.  Serve with a dollop of sour cream and a sprig of cilantro.

For other grain and bean recipes on this site, click here.

For other soup recipes on this site, click here.

For other pumpkin recipes on this site, click here.

For information on local food sources, click here.

Tags: beans, pumpkin, Soups