Friday, October 31, 2008

Navy Bean and Sweet Red Pepper Soup

We made it to the end of the Vegan Month of Food!  As I forewarned, I'm ending the month with a simple soup recipe.

Navy Bean and Red Pepper Soup

 The quinoa sprinkled on top is a silly share of the spicy quinoa I ate on the side.

Earlier this week I was planning my work lunches and found myself with a few leftover veggies looking to be used, basic spices and frozen navy beans (which are not blue, fyi)  that I'd cooked a couple months before.
It being the end of the pay period and me buying cheap, I wanted to use what I had on hand and with rainy season upon Portland, some hodgepodge soup was delivered.  
Please note that this recipe was simply feeding me, so double if you want more soup.  

Ingredients:
4 cloves of purple garlic, minced
1/2 small, sweet yellow onion, chopped
1 German butterball potato, peeled and diced
1 sweet Italian red pepper
1.5- 2 cups of navy beans
2 cups of vegetable broth (or more, depending on what you like)
good pinch of white pepper
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
1/2 teaspoon of oregano
pinch of crumbled thyme
1/2 teaspoon of savory seasoning mix or other dried herbs - I used Spike salt-free seasoning salt - I've had it for years!
dash of paprika
dash of crushed red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons olive oil

Let's have a go at Instructions:
It's easy.
-Add the oil to the saucepan and put the heat on medium.  I have an electric stove and this is really low-medium for me, so be careful not to burn anything and heat as you reasonably like.

-Add the onions and cook for 5 minutes or so, stirring often.

-Add the chopped potato and red pepper.  Stir and cook another 5-7 minutes.

-Add the garlic, salt, pepper and spices, cook for another couple minutes, stirring frequently.  

-Add the broth and stir once.  Bring to a boil and decrease the heat to low.  

-Add the beans - frozen or defrosted, cover, and let sit for 25-30 minutes, however long you like.

-Stir occasionally.

-Puree to desired consistency.  I'm not about to eat an onion chunk, so I smoothed things out in my Magic Bullet blender in two batches.  

-Season with additional salt and pepper if desired.

-Eat in a mug with a spoon.  

Take that, cold and rainy day in Portland!! 

I personally really like how the creamy butterball meets bland bean and sweet pepper in this.  I ate it and thought "Man, I don't even want to put hot sauce in this!"  

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Simple soups are my favourite!
Yay for reaching the end of veganmofo-

sarchan said...

Mmm, soup. Sounds delicious.

Michelle said...

where did you get that ONION?!?!

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Delish soup!! Perfect ending to MoFo.

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

Michelle - the squash stand!

I bought it to make BBQ sauce ; )

Eric said...

Ooh that looks really really good. I've never seen the salt-free seasoning salt. I'll have to try that.

Your wording made me laugh: "I'm not about to eat an onion chunk".

Meg Wolff said...

This looks absolutely delicious. I love navy beans in a soup.

I came over from A Grain A Day blog. I live in the other Portland (Maine), but lived in Portland OR for 10 years. So, know the area, including SE. Great place, especially the people. And wonderful restaurants!!

LOVE the name of your blog. I'll add you to my blog roll.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a good one. Anything with red pepper is going to be tasty.

Anonymous said...

Nice soup - its getting so chilly here at night that soup is perfect.

IsaChandra said...

What's with the onions, toots?

Anonymous said...

That soup looks really awesome!!

Anonymous said...

this is a great recipe to round out the mofo! looks really creamy and delicious.

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

Woo, soup weather! This sounds tasty.

funwithyourfood said...

there you go showing off that magic bullet blender again....

Jen said...

tis the season for soup. i'll have to try it!

Bethany said...

I've never heard of a german butterball potato - sounds amazing. Soup looks really yummy, too!

DJ said...

I love cold-weather soup so I'm very excited to see so many recipes cropping up! This one looks comforting and delicious!