Black Bean Pumpkin Soup

Submitted by TasteTester

"I like to serve this hearty soup in October and November, perfect for a fall meal. This recipe came from Gourmet magazine and makes a meaty, spicy and smoky soup, thickened by pureed black beans. Enjoy!"

 

• Ready In: 1hr 5mins
• Ingredients: 15
• Yields: 8 cups

ingredients

• 3 (15 1/2 ounce) cans black beans (about 4 1/2 cups, rinsed and drained)
• 1 cup drained canned tomato, chopped
• 1 1⁄4 cups chopped onions
• 1⁄2 cup minced shallot
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1⁄4 cup unsalted butter (1/4 cup)
• 4 cups beef broth
• 16 ounces can pumpkin puree (abouit 1 1/2 cups)
• 1⁄2 cup dry sherry
• 1⁄2 lb cooked ham, cut into 1/8-inch dice
• 3 -4 tablespoons sherry wine vinegar

• Garnish

• sour cream

directions

1. In a food processor coarsely puree beans and tomatoes.
2. In a 6-quart heavy kettle, cook onion, shallots, garlic, cumin, salt and pepper in butter over moderate heat, stirring until onion is softened and beginning to brown. Stir in bean puree. Stir in broth, pumpkin puree and sherry until combined. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 25 minutes or until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
3. Just before serving, add ham and vinegar. Simmer soup, stirring, until completely heated through. Season soup with salt and pepper.
4. Serve soup garnished with sour cream, if desired.

Reviews

[Carole]

My husband was "NOT" excited when I told him we were having 'pumpkin' in soup tonight. Then he tasted it - delicious. Must admit I just used the whole can of tomatoes (Fire Roasted ones). I did a "coarse" puree (used an immersion blender) as suggested to ensure there was some texture left. Yum

 

[lecole54]

This was outstanding! The only change that I made was that, since one can't seem to find sherry vinegar anywhere in my region, I used unfiltered cider vinegar (which was a suggested substitution on another page). I'd definitely use a smoky rather than sweet ham in this recipe -- and definitely add the sour cream! I might reserve half a can of beans next time to give it a tad more texture; other than that, it was perfect.

 

[cooking for boys]

Wow. Thank you for this recipe! Making it for the second time in a week tonight - my boys and I could not eat enough first time round.<br/>I did not have any ham in the house but I did have applewood bacon, so I fried up 4 strips of that and then I used 2 tablespoons of the drippings to cook the onions.<br/>When the soup was finished I added the bacon and I used rice vinegar because that's what I had.<br/>I also used 1/2 cup cilantro and blended it into my sourcream and served that on the side and everyone added how much they wanted. It was amazing!!!!<br/>Again, thanks for sharing !!!!

 

[Sydney Mike]

You definitely have a great soup recipe here! Although I did cut the recipe in half, I followed the ingredients right on down & it came together so nicely! Wonderfully tasty (we thought the bean & pumpkin combo was just great) & this is definitely a soup I'll make again! It's now in my tried-&-true soup file! Thanks so much for posting the recipe! [Tagged & made in Please Review My Recipe]

 

[Starrynews]

This is a winner! I had never tried combing pumpkin and black beans before, and I'm sorry it's taken me this long to do so! This is a wonderful, flavorful soup. I omitted the salt (personal preference). Thanks for sharing!