It took a week to make: black bean soup with root vegetables

Now, ragazzi, as usual Annalena is giving you a misleading title.  No, it did not take her a full week to make this soup.  Rather, she wants to provide something for all of you who "just don't have time" to make a pot of soup.

Annalena is not accepting this.  No, no , no.  She made this soup, in three different phases, and at no point did she exert herself for more than about ten minutes.  That is serious. And she has two quarts of wonderful "winter penicillin," as one writer has called it.  

Annalena loves black bean soup.  And it is, again as many have written, the perfect place to express yourself.  If you have cooked black beans, you can make a wonderful soup, which goes in any direction that you feel you want to take it.  This one is fairly classic, and it comes out of Annalena's desire to use up some veggies she had around, and could not think of what else to do with.  She's told that just about any winter root vegetable will go well with black beans.  Try it, and let her know.

Ok, day 1:  let's make the beans.  Get 3/4 of a pound (you could use a pound, but this is what the girl had) of black beans, put them under water by about two inches, and let them soak, overnight.

Next morning, after you pour yourself some coffee, pour out the beans, and put them in a pot with fresh water, and cook them for about an hour.  Taste after forty five minutes, and see if they are going to need more time.  If they do, and you won't be there, turn off the flame and cover the pot. When you come home, taste them again.  They may have cooked some more, and may not have.  In any event, you will probably need somewhere between an hour and an hour and a half of cooking time.  As soon as you turn off the heat because they're cooked, add a couple teaspoons of salt.  And let them sit and cool, before you refrigerate them, covered by some of the liquid.  You should have about six cups.


Day 2 (or 3, depending on your point of view):  time for the root vegetables.  For Annalena, this was carrots, and rutubagas.  She had the rutubagas from her farm box, else she would not have them.  For of rutubaga , Annalena agrees with MFK Fisher:  "down with it."  Use whatever you have, but carrots are really nice as an element.  You want about four cups worth of cubed root veggies:  carrots, celery root, turnips, etc, etc, etc.  Lay them out on a baking sheet, pour on two tablespoons of olive oil and a teaspoon of salt.  Stir everything together with your hands, and then put them in a 400 degree oven for thirty minutes.  You'll get a little color, not much.  And you're done, for day 2(3).

Day 3 (or 4).  Let's chop up two onions, and about six cloves of garlic.  Pour a tablespoon or two of olive oil in your soup pot, and add the onions while the oil is cold.  Bring the heat to medium, and when the onions start sizzling, throw in a tablespoon of ground cumin and a couple of bay leaves.  This is all Annalena used for seasoning.  When the onions have gone to translucent, add the garlic, and stir it together until  you get a nice fragrance.  Drain the beans, and put them in the pot with the root vegetables.  Add a hot pepper if you like.  Cover everything with water (you'll need about a quart, maybe more), and then bring everything to a slow simmer.

If you like (and this is the way Annalena likes this soup), let the veggies and beans cook until they're soft enough to mash in the pot.  You could also scoop some out and puree it in a blender or such, but Annalena finds this not as much fun as doing it by hand.  If you like the soup more solid, don't bother with this.  Fish out the pepper, and the bay leaves, season to taste (it will need it), and you have two quarts of absolute goodness: winter penicillin, as Annalena has written.

Go for it, ragazzi.  Go through those steps and tell Annalena how much work you did.  Practically none.  So, make this.  It's cheap, it's easy, it's good, it's nutritious.  What more could you want?