OK, so I’ll admit that I wasn’t thrilled when Pete asked if we could have bean soup for dinner one night this week. I mean, I do love that he loves beans so much. But I wasn’t looking forward to boring ol’ bean soup. But then last night I made Dave Lieberman’s Black Bean Soup.
And you guys. My stars. That is good soup.
Rockford would’ve given it two thumbs up if his thumbs hadn’t been busy with the soup-eating. Instead he just ate two bowls of it silently, with that slightly-crazed gleam in his eye that he gets when he’s eating something really, really good.
I altered the recipe a little bit, giving the bacon a little extra attention to make sure it was crispy; adding broth because a lot of reviewers suggested it; cutting back on the garlic because I didn’t have the six cloves called for in the original recipe; blending some of the soup to make it a little bit creamy; and adding tortilla chips because I like ’em.
Here’s the recipe with my revisions. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
- 10 slices really good smoked bacon, chopped
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 32 ounces reduced-sodium chicken broth
- 1 can diced tomatoes with garlic
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 4 (15 1/2-ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- juice of 1/2 lime
- Sour cream
- Grated cheddar
- Tortilla chips
- Put the bacon into a large heavy pot and place it over medium heat. Cook until it starts to give up its fat, about 4 minutes. Leaving the grease in the pot, move the bacon to a baking sheet and put it in the oven. Turn the oven to 400 degrees and move the bacon around occasionally while the soup cooks.
- Stir the onions into the grease in the pot and cook, stirring, until they start to turn translucent. Stir in the garlic and cook until you can smell it, about 1 minute. Add the broth, tomatoes, ketchup, Worcestershire and chili powder. Stir in the beans, then turn the heat to high and bring to a boil. Simmer 10 minutes, then season the soup with salt and pepper.
- (Check your bacon every now and again. When it’s <i>just-this-side</i> of very crispy, take it out and set it on some paper towels to drain.)
- Put about 3 cups of soup in a bowl and blend it with a hand-blender. Stir the pureed mixture back into the rest of the soup, then stir in the lime juice. Serve with crispy bacon, cheese, sour cream and crumbled tortilla chips.
A final note: I’m not normally a proponent of spending extra money on things, but for this soup you’ll want to go ahead and splurge on the bacon. Because let’s be honest: It’s pretty much a bacon-delivery vehicle.
One or more of us has been sick every day this week. Pete had a weird fever with no other symptoms last weekend, then I came down with an awful cold and lost my voice for most of the week — I sound a little like Kathleen Turner today, when I try to talk — and now both kids are having some (ah-hem) gastrointestinal discomforts that I very much hope not to experience personally. Right now they are both bundled up in blankets and a general malaise in the living room and listening to