Black Bean and Quinoa Soup

You'd be hard pressed to find a single unhealthy ingredient in this hearty, colorful soup; and yet, it tastes delicious, especially on the second day. [Warning: Not for spinach or black bean haters!]

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup chopped fresh tomato

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons chili powder

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed

1 large carrot, chopped

5 cups low sodium or no-salt-added vegetable broth

3 cups cooked black beans or 2 (15 ounce) cans low sodium or no-salt-added black beans, drained

4 cups baby spinach

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

1 avocado, chopped

[I must interject to say that I used regular chicken broth and regular black beans, with no regard to salt content in either. So, technically, it's not really healthy, but it's healthy enough for me!]

First, prep your ingredients:

I gave the beans only a slight rinse.

The quinoa is simple to rinse in a colander. 

Never had quinoa? Neither had I, a year or so ago, but it's nothing to be afraid of; it's simply a grain with a mild flavor and good a pleasant texture. It's a little like barley, I guess.

Saute onion and green pepper with 2-3 tablespoons of water in a soup pot,

until tender (about 5 minutes), adding more water if needed to prevent sticking. Add garlic and saute another 30 seconds, until fragrant. Add the tomato, cumin, chili powder and red pepper flakes and cook for 2-3 minutes, until tomatoes soften. 

Add carrots and vegetable broth, bring to a boil, stir in the rinsed quinoa, reduce heat, cover and cook for 10 minutes. Add black beans and continue cooking until heated through and quinoa is tender, about 10 minutes. Add spinach and stir until wilted. Mmmmm.....I love spinach!

Remove from heat and stir in cilantro and lime juice. Serve garnished with chopped avocado (optional, of course).

Makes two quarts.

The other delicious soup in the photo is Stuffed Green Pepper Soup. 

I made both soups within two hours.

You can find a printer-friendly version of this recipe here.

If this is your recipe, I apologize for not giving due credit; I simply forgot where I found it! I will happily amend the post with credit when provided such.

Roasted Sweet Potato Salad w Black Beans & Chili-Lime Dressing

Apologies to whoever I got this recipe from! I tried to find you via Google but came up empty. Regardless, it's all over the Internet, which tells everyone it's good! [Update: Thanks, Blogging Under the Influence!!!]

I don't know how anyone could get tired of eating sweet potatoes or potato salad, but let's just say you are. In that case, this is a delightfully-different spin on potato salad and on sweet potatoes in general. First of all, it's a mixture of textures and flavors not usually associated with sweet potatoes (kind of like my yummy Berry Mallow Bake that way.) Also, it's served warm or room temperature, which I absolutely loved (since you know Mr.4444 rarely brings the meat in from the grill at the time he originally planned!) Let's get started!

Ingredients:
4 medium sweet potatoes (I used two of the ginormous ones pictured), cut into 1" chunks
1 large red onion, chopped
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
salt and freshly-ground pepper
*1-2 tablespoons minced, fresh, hot chili (such as jalapeno)
1 clove garlic, peeled
juice of two limes
2 cups cooked black beans (canned are fine), drained
1 red or yellow bell pepper, seeded and finely-diced
*1 cup chopped fresh cilantro

*Before I begin, I must confess that I am missing two ingredients from my version (too lazy to run back out to the store for cilantro and a jalapeno. Even without those, it was delicious.

Instructions:
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Chop the sweet potatoes and onions like this...


Put them in a large bowl and drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the oil. (Knowing what I know now, I might put a little less oil in this stage next time; when I cooked the potatoes, they were so wet, they were fully cooked before having the chance to brown.)

Toss to coat...
...and spread out in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle with sale and pepper.

Put them in the oven and roast, turning occasionally, until potatoes begin to brown on the corners and are just tender inside, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from oven and keep on pan until ready to mix with dressing.

While the potatoes and onions are filling your kitchen with the scent of heaven, prepare the dressing. Juice the limes...(I like to use a strainer, since that's all I have to keep the seeds out of the juice, but I just asked Santa for a juicer thingy, so hopefully, I've behaved myself enough this year.)

Put chilies in a blender or mini food-processor along with garlic, lime juice, the remaining olive oil, and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

Process until blended, making sure not to do this....

Just look at that golden goodness:

Drain the beans.
Don't forget to watch the potatoes. Mine looked like this when they came out:

Put warm vegetables in a large bowl with the beans and bell pepper. Toss with dressing and cilantro. Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary. Serve warm or at room temperature, or refrigerate up to a day.

Serves 4-6

Isn't it pretty?

The final product, as my mom would say, "Looks good enough to eat!"

And eat we did! Here are the verdicts:

*Mr.4444 and I loved this dish and had two helpings each.
*Kyle (age 17) had one serving and said it was "good."
*Kendall (age 14) could not get past the onions and the fact that I made her try it without actually looking at it first. (Sorry, Kendall.)