What do you do when you have 10 different non-analogous items that are hovering around going bad? If you said throw them away, then you clearly have a lot to learn, young grasshopper.
No, you don't throw away perfectly good--or still pretty much OK--food. That's wasteful. Starving children in China! Starving children on everywhere, actually. Besides, we throw too much away, this culture of waste that I'm fully, guiltily a part of. No, I knew that I could forge something out of the leftovers. Macguyver, I'm not though. No, I learned at the alter of another anti-waste crusader, my father, to whom anything was fair game for his favorite leftover vehicle--SOUP!
Having not grocery shopped for at least three weeks and needing to throw something together for dinner, lunch today, etc., I scrouged through the fridge to see what we still had left to eat. I found:
2 shriveled jalepenos
1 fair-shape banana pepper
1/4 cup homemade roasted tomato salsa, which lacking chips to eat it with was languishing unloved in the fridge
1 overripe, starting-to-rot-in-a-spot tomato
1/2 a dried-out lime
1/2 of each a zucchini and a summer squash
Well, these things together sounded pretty southwestern/mexican, so I turned my thoughts to that direction and thought about what to do. I had homemade chicken stock in the freezer, as always, frozen in "butterware" 2-3 cup portions (bonus hint: keep a gallon-size ziplock in the freezer and throw your chicken bones, onion scraps (but not skins-they are bitter), carrot ends and celery trimmings in it throughout the month. When it's full, dump it in a stock pot, cover with water, and simmer for 2-3 hours, and strain--instant stock!). And I always have 6 or 7 cans of various beans in the cupboard to give substance (read: protein) to thrown-together meals. Lacking only tortillas from a basic tortilla soup, I forged ahead into deliciousness---with great success!
I'm an easy pleaser--I like almost all food, and I really like soup. It is somehow both filling and light. Although a hearty bowl of soup doesn't really fit with a hot, humid summer day like today, this soup is veggie-heavy and spicy, rather than gloppy or heavy. Recipe after the jump.
Side note--the funny part about this recipe is that it isn't even what we had for dinner last night--I just made it to have on hand for lunch and to stock the freezer for future lunches. I often find myself cooking two things at once--one to eat now, and one to eat later. It's just how I work--always thinking ahead to my next meal....
Mexican Black Bean Soup
Serves 4 for lunch or 6 as a starter, whatever that means. About 7-ish cups total.
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 jalepeno peppers, seeded and minced
1 banana pepper, halved, seeded and thinly sliced
1 cup chopped zucchini and/or summer squash
1 to 1.5 cups chopped tomatoes and/or salsa
1 tsp cumin
1 can black beans, drained (rinsed too, if you want. I was lazy)
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup water
1/2 lime (optional)
1. Heat oil in a heavy pot (at least 2 quart size) over medium/med high heat. When oil is hot, but not smoking, add onion. Saute a minute or two before adding the garlic, peppers and zucchinis. Season with salt & pepper and cook until starting to soften, 3-5 minutes.
2. Add tomatoes and cumin; cook for barely a minute, just to soften/incorporate.
3. Add stock, water, and beans. Season with salt & pepper, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes or so to let flavors come together. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary. Squeeze 1/2 a lime over the top to brighten flavors, if you so desire.
Serve right away or keep in the fridge for up to a week (or in the freezer for a month or two). As with most soups, I find them much better on day 2. I always portion some soup into my butterware containers (like the hillshire farms meat tupperwares, gladware, etc) and freeze individual portions, which later can be taken out and put directly into my lunchbox. Just be wary of doing this with soups that have potato in them--i always find my potatoes get mealy and gross when they're frozen in soup.
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