What's your favorite winter meal? When it's cold and snowy outside, warm up with a bowl of Black Bean and Sweet Potato Soup. It's simple, filling, and unexpectedly delicious. Our version was served with a side of wheat rolls (or brown rice for a gluten-free meal), a green salad, and sliced oranges for a balanced meal.
Black Bean and Sweet Potato Soup
Makes 4-6 servings
Makes 4-6 servings
Time to prepare – Approximately 1 hour
Ingredients:
1 T oil
1 tsp. minced ginger
3/4 tsp. ground coriander
3/4 – 1 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. ground fennel
fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 large or 2 medium sweet potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
3 cups black beans, dry
salt to taste
2 T fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 T oil
1 tsp. minced ginger
3/4 tsp. ground coriander
3/4 – 1 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. ground fennel
fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 large or 2 medium sweet potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
3 cups black beans, dry
salt to taste
2 T fresh-squeezed lemon juice
Cilantro
Yogurt (optional)
Instructions:
Rinse and soak dry black beans overnight or first thing in the morning to be ready for dinner.
Rinse and soak dry black beans overnight or first thing in the morning to be ready for dinner.
Cook beans in pressure cooker. If you do not have a pressure cooker, you can cook in a soup pot, but this will add to preparation time.
After cooking, do not discard the water from the cooked beans!
Heat oil in heavy soup pot, add diced ginger and diced sweet potatoes and saute. Add ground coriander, ground cumin, ground fennel and fresh-ground black pepper and saute until sweet potatoes are mostly cooked.
Add the black beans and water to the sweet potatoes and salt to taste. Let soup simmer on medium-low heat for about 30 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are tender.
Remove 3 cups of beans and sweet potatoes with a slotted spoon and keep aside. Use an immersion blender or regular blender to puree the remaining soup. (Be very careful with the hot soup if using a regular blender; fill the blender container only about 3/4 full and hold the lid on the blender with a towel or hot pad draped over the lid.)
Add the reserved sweet potatoes and beans back into the soup, taste for salt, and simmer about 15 minutes more.
Turn off heat and add lemon juice and chopped cilantro.
Serve hot. If desired, you can garnish with a dollop of yogurt and cilantro.
Want to switch it up? Try adding roasted corn or tomato, or try something brand new and tell us how it was in the comments!
Have always loved the food served at III…simple, tasty, balanced and nourishing. Trying to incorporate the same at home. Always come back home and try them at home!!…avocado-bellpepper-celery sauce with lime and pepper umm… it was wonderful and my 4 yr and 2 yr old loved it
Thanks for posting recipes…look forward to seeing more in the future.
I tried the same thing but I didn't have sweet potatoes, so I replaced with Pumpkin Squash just to see how it goes. It turned out to really well, my family also liked it. Thanks for posting the wonderful recipe.
Thanks for sharing this recipe! It looks yummy. I don't have a pressure cooker and I have little time to cook. I'm thinking canned black beans would work, too? But if I were to cook black beans in a soup pot, how long do they have to cook?
Judy Wiggins