Easy Black Bean Soup

I've been eating this black bean soup since Saturday & I'm happily having it for lunch again, today. Granted I made enough to feed a small country but it was too easy not too & I'll confess when I cook with dried beans I always forget that those 1lb bags make A LOT.

As I just hinted at I used dried beans for this recipe, so while it is easy it is time consumptive as in the beans take about 2 hours to cook. If you have a free afternoon or some time on the weekend I recommend making this & then eating it for lunch for two weeks. You can also easily freeze it after it has cooled down.

One thing that I ask you to do to fully enjoy this soup is to top it with this cream sauce. The tanginess of the yogurt & acidity of the lime take this to another level. Do it!

PS: you can totally make this recipe gluten-free if you don't eat it with tortilla chips that have flour & you can make it vegan by using veggie stock & skipping the cream sauce.

PPS: if you don't wan to make 2lbs of beans cut the recipe in half!

Simple Vinaigrette

It’s unofficially summer - it’s just getting hotter & I love it! Every time the temps rise I want to eat cooling simple meals - mainly salads.  I rarely buy salad dressing at the super market with the exception of blue cheese dressing to compliment Chris’s love for anything buffalo sauced & that little packet of raspberry vinaigrette that comes in that delicious spinach salad mix from Trader Joe’s.  Other than those two exceptions I usually throw lemon juice or vinegar & some olive oil on my salads & call it a day.  Sometimes I like to make my own (like here & here).  This simple vinaigrette is great because it’s made from stuff you most likely shop for on a weekly basis & even if you don’t you can find them at the most basic grocery stores - no specialty stores necessary.  It’s a great dressing that turns plain mixed greens into a salad with no other toppings. We ate mixed greens tossed with this dressing with some pizza for dinner. The salad was so good I made two giant serving bowls of it & not a leaf was left!

If you’ve never made your own dressing, give it a try. It really is easy & usually tastes better than anything on the shelf. Oh & with this recipe you’ll be able to identify all the ingredients.