I use Mild or Hot Italian sausages (6) ( Johnsonville)
2 cans of black beans
2 large cans of diced tomatoes...or you could used home canned ones.
3-4 cups raw spinach
optional ingredients include lentils, diced red and green peppers, diced carrots, grated garlic, Epicurian Pueblo Bean Dip spice, Hot sauce, and the kitchen sink.
If you are using canned black beans, ignore the next bit:
For this particular recipe I soaked dried black beans overnight in water, then drained that off and put the beans in a large pot and covered them with about an inch or two of water, then put the heat under them.Of course, you have to be extra careful that the beans don't dry out, so keep adding water as needed. In Costa Rica, they cooked the beans this way...not flooding them with a ton of water. In the end, when the beans were ready, they blended them into mush for a yummy black bean sauce. ( you need to add both sugar and salt and hot sauce to make it taste like anything.)
Back to cooking beans.It takes about three hours to cook them to the soft bean stage, even if they had been soaked.
I had about four cups of black beans in my pot, when I added the two large cans of diced tomatoes. I added a little extra water as it still looked pretty thick. Add a liberal shake of salt, a couple of teaspoons of sugar and let the mixture bubble along. Stir to prevent the beans from sticking.
Meanwhile you can cook your sausages. I prick them with a fork or knife, then fry a bit and then add 2 inches of water and fry them with the lid on the pan, replenishing water when it starts to boil dry. In most of the other recipes, they removed the sausage meat from the casing and fried it all up so it looked like ground beef. Suit yourself. Meanwhile peel and dice a carrot, and throw it into the tomatoe mixture.
Once the sausages are pretty much cooked, I remove them from the fry pan to a cutting board where I chop them into bite-sized slices. I added all the slices to the tomatoe soup part.
To the drippings in the fry pan, I added a couple of teaspoons of diced garlic, and my diced red and green pepper. I sauteed the peppers till soft, then added those to my soup. If the soup looks too thick, you can use your Braun to blend some of it . I tasted it and added 2 tsps or more of the Victoria epicure spice called Pueblo Bean Dip. It gives a nice flavour. I suppose one could add some taco seasoning or chili seasoning, or Italian seasoning if you want to flavour it Italian. I added more salt and a little more sugar to round out the flavour, then a dash of hot-sauce to perk it up. At the very end, I dumped in the fresh spinach, gave it a stir, until bright green, then dished up a big spoonful over top a slice of cheddar cheese. Lastly I topped it with some toasted croutons, and then I gobbled it all up! It was a soup recipe that I first found in a recipe book entitled "Dishes under 30 Minutes"...so if you are usijg the canned bean method, it should only take you a half hour to make. It is totally filling and very yummy! give it a try on a cool winter day!
My cheese slice in the bowl
Topped with the hot soup
A little extra yumminess with the toasted croutons. All good, and a bowlful in my tummy!
That was a warming end to my day spent largely outside. I set up my two reindeer, and my blow up snowmen trio, plus decorated the railing with LED lights. The big thing was getting all the cords to co-ordinate and getting everything plugged in. I set up my new timer that has a light sensor. Seemed to do its job and come on just as dark was setting in. Now I have all of the Xmas decorations out into the middle of the basement. Right now, I feel like a little nap, but I do want to get my living room decorated for my party in two weeks... and most of all I want to bake...
Take care and have a good week-end.
Emil made it to Victoria and is having fun with Sonia and Annette and KAleigh and Maddie boo-hoo.......so I am on my own...ta-Da!
"The Creator"
