Cuban Black Bean Soup

"Chef Douglas Rodriguez of DeLaCosta restaurant in Chicago was born in America, but this recipe is inspired by his mother's black bean soup, which offered robust flavor for people who didn't have money to spend on meat for stock. Here we use both fresh and dried oregano because each imparts a different flavor to the final dish. The ham is listed in the ingredients but since I have always made my black bean without "meat" I made it that way again. This was in Cooking Light, 01/01/2008! Just another take on black beans that I think are great!! Cuban cooking reflects the influence of Spain and Africa as well as other Caribbean countries. Spicy heat is not as pronounced in Cuban cuisine as in other Latin fare."
 
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photo by bmwkiz_12331913 photo by bmwkiz_12331913
photo by bmwkiz_12331913
Ready In:
3hrs 30mins
Ingredients:
21
Serves:
10
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ingredients

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directions

  • Place bay leaves and beans in a Dutch oven.
  • Add 12 cups water to pan; bring to a boil.
  • Reduce heat, and simmer 2 1/2 hours or until tender, stirring occasionally.
  • Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
  • Add bell pepper, chopped onion, and shallots to pan; cook 10 minutes or until onion is tender, stirring frequently.
  • Stir in cumin, dried oregano, and fresh oregano; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
  • Remove from heat; let stand 10 minutes.
  • Place vegetable mixture in a blender; add remaining 1/2 cup water; puree until smooth.
  • Add vegetable mixture, sugar, and salt to beans; simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  • Discard bay leaves.
  • Combine avocado and juice; toss gently.
  • Ladle 3/4 cup bean mixture into each of 10 bowls; top each serving with about 3 tablespoons avocado mixture, about 3 tablespoons red onion, 2 tablespoons ham, about 1 1/2 tablespoons cilantro, about 1 1/2 tablespoons sour cream, 1 teaspoon pumpkinseed kernels, and about 1/2 teaspoon jalapeño pepper.
  • Serve with lime wedges, if desired.

Questions & Replies

  1. Do I have to use a Dutch oven?
     
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Reviews

  1. This has become my "go to" recipe for Black Bean Soup. Had to play around with the water level on the beans the first time or two. I also originally out thought the recipe and figured that it had to be a type or something with that much green pepper and onion in the recipe. I finally understood you're making a sofrito essentially to thicken the soup with all the green peppers and onions / shallots. I've ended up reducing the cups of water I start with to 10, not 12 and add as I need to (just enough to barely keep the beans covered). When you then add in the sofrito, it's really wonderful. Also, I sometimes skip the pumpkin seeds and garnish with tortilla strips and sour cream. I add the jalapeno right into the rest of the peppers in the sofrito versus using as a garnish. We sometimes also skip the meat, it's perfect as a vegetarian dish or using chicken bouillion as a cooking stock.
     
  2. This soup is delicious. I made it last night with smoked ham and it was so delicious. I highly recommend it. Healthy comfort food!
     
  3. Turned out really nice. I did throw in a smoked pork hock right at the start. after the soup was finished, I removed the hock, cut up the meat quite fine and returned it to the soup. It adds a wonderful flavour. found the oregano a little overpowering, might just cut it down the next time, and I also substituted the sugar with a can of tomato paste. One more little tweak, I did not puree the veggies, but rather pulsed them quite small, just so you can distinguish what they are, added one hot red pepper just for visual appeal, diced very fine.
     
  4. This soup is delicious!!!! The only thing I did different was use chicken base (2 Tablespoons) in my water that I cooked the beans in. Love black beans soup and this was the best I ever had.
     
  5. This was absolutely great. I used 10 cups of water and it worked out great. I also used an emulsion blender with a couple two or three buzzes at the end to thicken a little more. I also added some white rice to it as well. all the condiments made it. Just great. Im saving this one for sure.
     
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<p>Hello all, thank you for visiting My Page but forgive me for&nbsp;it is a work in progress! :) As I am sure you have noticed I changed my Chef Name to Manami which means love &amp; beauty. ;) Just thought I should get with the program - my geisha &amp; my icon! :) Don't fret, I won't change it again! <br /><br />I am 70 years young and I live in a nursing home, which is out of this world, I am treated like a princess and the world is my oyster! I have a private room and during the season I do taxes for most of the staff, as well as my personal clients that have been following me since I left the business world about 25 years ago. I was rear-ended by a van and it turned my whole world upside down. Why dwell on that? <br /><br />I am an American Jew (from NYC) who moved to Havana, Cuba when I was 2 1/2 years old, lived there until a few days after Castro took over and vamoosed it out of that country as fast as my legs would carry me! I&nbsp;was on a forced hiatus from the UofM, due to illness. <br /><br />From there my sister, mother and I went to NYC to work and my father went to Haiti in Port-Au-Prince, where he and my uncle had purchased some tiny cocoa plantations &amp; a chocolate factory - for the choccolate liquer - to make baking chocolate (the real bitter stuff). We joined my father about 2 months later where I spent 2 of the most carefree &amp; wonderful years of my life! It is the stuff that movies are made of! (A la Grace Kelly - even my clothes were like hers)&gt;&nbsp;</p> <p>I then continued my studies in upstate NY and hated it because it was too, too cold!:( Went back to NYC to work and see what I wanted to do with my life - I was all of 20 years old and had to drop out of school because of illness and then because of the weather! Yuck - so I got a job in a Textile Buying Office as a receptionist and soon I found myself buying trimmings! Loved it and was very happy with the work I was doing. <br /><br />However, I got an offer from two young guys who had a factory in Cleveland, Ohio, where they made Maternity Clothes and they wanted me to be in charge of the shipping dept, keep inventory and in my spare time - help with the designing!! I couldn't pass it up - the offer sounded so great and the salary was twice what I was making in the NYC. So I went to Cleveland, got married, had both my children and got a divorce 15 years later. <br /><br />Then my children and I moved to South Florida and have been here since 1978, I can't count that far back :) <br /><br />Learned how to do taxes with H&amp;R Block and worked simultaneously&nbsp;as a Supervisor in 2 offices&nbsp;for them for 15 years. Then after the accident everything went spiralling downwards until I could no longer walk alone even with a walker - so the next step was a wheelchair. Stayed at home with a lot of help (nurses, PT therapists) fixed the bathroom so I could bathe myself and fixed the kitchen so I could help warm-up meals (was taught how to cook in rehab) and so forth and so on. <br /><br />However, the fire department had other plans for me, I called them too often to pick me up off the floor - how embarassing! So they gave me a choice - either a home or they would have to call HRS! :( (very sad) <br /><br />It was there, in my home where I was robbed! <img title=Cry src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-cry.gif border=0 alt=Cry />&nbsp;All my cookbooks (all my Julia Childs Cookbooks, my Settlement Cookbook which had been my mothers - published in 1939 - with all her notes) my mother's cookbooks from Cuba &amp; Haiti, all my handwritten recipes. They also took all my Delft collection, some antiques that I had in the kitchen like my rolling pin, a beautiful old &amp; used wooden bowl, a charcoal-iron that was brought north when my parents left Haiti, it was hand-painted &amp; was gorgeous, as well as all the other things that are too numerous to mention! <br /><br />That proved to be the last straw &amp; from there it was an ALF,<img title=Yell src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-yell.gif border=0 alt=Yell /> which was horrible, and then on to another home where the administrator of that home became the administrator here and voila, here I am. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile /></p> <p>I have a beautiful large private room with a private&nbsp;bath, furnished to my liking: eclectic!&nbsp;<img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /> My room is large enough to house my office and all the other odds and ends with which I like to surround myself.<br /><br />During tax season, mostly, my room is always full (of course I love it that way)! I have a blanket&nbsp;my daughter bought for me in New Mexico and that is on my bed. You guessed it - that is where everbody sits or on my great grandfather's arm chair which is in great shape. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile />&nbsp;Update 01/11/2008 that time is here again :) Have started doing taxes already and not just regular taxes but corporations, partnerships and 1040X - ammended returns! Whoopee! I love the feeling I get when this time comes around and I get into gear!!! I love it! :) <br /><br />The head chef, the kitchen supervisor &amp; the dietician enjoy the recipes from Zaar; the ones that I post, as well as, the others. We are in the process of changing the menu right now - so we have been doing a lot of figuring. The administrator is so cute because every once in a while she asks for a recipe and then she gives me a pack of paper so I can print them. <img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /><br /><br />I am president of the resident council and most of the family members come to me to take care of their grievances - this way I do my part - and the staff can take care of the larger problems! It has been working for 10 years - why change if it ain't broke?<img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /></p> <p>Well, it's time to say hasta luego folks. <img title=Laughing src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-laughing.gif border=0 alt=Laughing /><br /><br /></p>
 
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