Mmmmmh

I am making an amazing bean soup. It's made with the remains of the ginormous roast I made and some beans and veggies and cocoa and chipotles and cumin and all those things. I have several gallons of it. It may be time to invest in a deep freeze; my fridge freezer is full of raw meat. It'd be awfully nice to have a supply of ready-made meals and now that I'm beginning to have enough containers, and to be busy and broke enough not to cook at home or eat out much, I think that might actually be good for something other than raw ingredients.

I had more stuff to say but my house smells like soup. It's distracting.

Oh right, started bleeding today. Harness those cooking hormones!

Best Bean Soup Recipe

This is so good. Okay.

Put this stuff in a ginormous pot:

650g-ish organic black beans
1 small head celery, chopped
3 tomatoes, chopped
5 carrots, chopped
2 purple yams, chopped
2 red and 1 green pepper, chopped
3 cups roast beef, chopped (omit if you like)
1 1/2 cups leftover cooked brown rice (to cut the spice originally, but adds body)
8-9 bay leaves
2-4 tbsp cumin
6 chipotles (4 if you're not a spice fan)
2 tbsp oregano
1 onion, chopped
1 head garlic, chopped (not clove, head)
6 tbsp cocoa powder
Some salt and garlic powder to taste

Cover till the whole thing hits the 9L mark on the pot. Cook for an hour or two. It will go through weird stages: bland, salty, high notes only. Don't worry.

When the beans start to explode, not just soften but actually pop out of their skin, add:

Several generous squirts of lemon juice (lime might be better)
A bunch of cilantro, chopped

Fish out the bay leaves and blend-- I blended roughly. Add salt and lemon juice if you need more at this point.

Find friends who need food and give it to them, put the rest in your freezer.

This cost me $18 for the 9L, but I have leftover chipotles and beans from the buy. The roast was leftover so I'm not factoring it in either. If I had gone with non-organic beans it would have cost me more like $12 but these beans are really superior in taste. For a soup that's basically beans + water it's worth it.

Serves maybe 18 people, 20 - 22 easy with tortilla chips and avacados crumbled on top and a touch of salad.