Friday, January 20, 2012

Southwestern Bean Soup

Yesterday was a cold and windy day so I thought a pot of chili would be good for dinner. I put on some beans in the morning and let them cook most of the day. In the past I've let the water cook out of the beans and was left with a big burned mess. So, yesterday I made sure to add water to the pot from time to time to prevent that from happening.  I browned some ground beef in a skillet along with some chopped onions and garlic. After pouring off the grease I added a can of diced tomatoes with green chilies, an 8 oz. can of tomato sauce, 1/3 cup of coffee, 1 tsp of beef base, 3 tsp brown sugar, 1 tsp cumin, 3 Tbs chili powder, 1/4 tsp cocoa powder, and 1 tsp oregano. I stirred all that together then added it to the pot of beans. I learned that in my effort to make sure the beans didn't boil dry I had added too much water and the result was a very soupy chili.  So when Dorothy came home I told her that I had made some Southwestern Bean Soup.  She loved it.

So now I have two recipes: one for chili (with a tightly controlled amount of water in the beans), and one for Southwestern Bean Soup ( water added with abandon).

5 comments:

Steven said...

Love it! That's a small amount of cocoa powder? I might be tempted to use more...but that's just me. I can't leave any recipe unchanged!

Unknown said...

The original recipe called for more cocoa powder but I'm always tweaking my recipes too.

Clarence said...

Sounds good Wally but if I'm going to try making it, I need a few more details. What type of beans did you start with; Pinto Beans?
How much is SOME ground beef?
If you have the original recipe handy, would you send me a copy or share it on your blog page and I'll do the copying myself.
I love the look you have achieved with your blog. What's your secret? Everything is so crisp and clean looking. Is there something special about your Blogger software? Did you upgrade from the Free stuff?
Just wondering. I'd like to spiff up my own somehow.

Lorna said...

just reading about this soup has left me satisfied until dinner

Unknown said...

Clarence, it's good to hear from you. I emailed you the recipe. Let me know how you like it. As for the blog I'm using the Blogger picture window template, then I create my own header image and title in PhotoShop and super impose it onto the template's own header, but it looks like you do the same to your blog.