Black Bean Soup with Kale and Mushrooms

As if Black Bean soup isn't already good enough, I added Kale and Mushrooms to push it over the top!!

I started with a Black Bean soup recipe from allrecipes.com (link), and changed it up a bit.  What I ended up with is below, and it's been a huge hit with our friends and families so far!  It's a hearty soup that covers 5 of the 7 GBOMBS (Greens, Beans, Onions, Mushrooms, Berries, and Seeds) that we are suppose to be eating every day.

Serves: 6
Prep time: 15 min
Cook Time: 45 min

Ingredients:

2 medium onions

2 stalks celery, chopped

3 carrots, chopped

2 cups mushrooms, sliced

4 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 tablespoon ground cumin

black pepper to taste

4 cups low sodium vegetable broth

8 cups (or 4 15 oz cans) black beans

2 cups sweet corn (frozen is fine)

1 15 oz can crushed tomatoes

1 bunch Kale, chopped

a dash or two of hot sauce (optional)

Instructions:

In a large pot over medium-high heat add onion, celery, carrots, mushrooms and garlic and cook for 10 minutes or so, until the onions and mushrooms are cooked. 

Add chili powder, cumin, and black pepper.  Stir, and cook for 3 minute or so before adding the vegetable broth, 4 cups of beans, and corn. Bring everything to a boil.

While that's cooking combine the remaining 4 cups of beans and the crushed tomatoes in a blender, and blend until smooth. Stir the blended beans and tomatoes into the boiling soup mixture, reduce heat to medium.  

Add the chopped kale, and simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally.

If you want to spice it up, which I almost always do, add a little hot sauce when serving!  Delish!!

Onions, Celery, Carrots, Mushrooms, and Garlic in the pot!

All stirred up and cooking nicely, just before adding the spices.

Fast forward, and it's finished and ready to eat!!

Lentil Dahl Soup

This dish is soooo easy and so delish it is a staple in our house these days. 50% of our kids like it! Okay, that is only one kid, but that is still pretty good!

This is my sister-in-law's friend's recipe, but I have modified it a bit:

Ingredients:
- 1 onion chopped
- 2 garlic cloves chopped
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 2 lb canned, chopped tomatoes (I use Muir Glen fire roasted tomatoes)
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 cup red lentils
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1 small can coconut milk
- 1/2 bag frozen peas
- Chopped cilantro & Lemon slices for optional garnish (which I never do!)


Pretty much I cook the onions, garlic and spices in water for a bit to mix the flavors, then I add everything else and cook for about a half an hour or so until the lentils cook and are soft. Red lentils cook *much* faster than brown lentils.

We usually eat it over some steamed spinach. Yum!

Pumpkin Soup

Ev begged me for some pumpkin soup the other day. We had just came back from pumpkin picking so I just used one of the medium sized pumpkins we got. I cut up the pumpkin, cubed it and cut the skin off. I then boiled it with one onion in and a box of veggie broth until soft. I added some pepper, cumin and cinnamon and then blended it all in the blender. It was surprisingly easy and delish!















I also made toasted pumpkin seeds, but Ev acted like I was poisoning him when he tasted those!