why is stuffing relegated to thanksgiving? i absolutely love stuffing – delicious bread coated in sage, celery, and (in this case at least), lots of other yummy ingredients – but i usually only make it on the fourth thursday in november.
full disclosure to you, internet: mike and i weren’t looking for a black bean soup recipe when we found this one, nor have we ever made black bean soup before. we just wanted to make some cornbread, and figured we had to eat something else alongside the cornbread to make it a complete meal.
i know, i know, you’re either sick of tomatoes and corn by now, or you’re wondering why you’d make a chowder in the heat of the end of the summer.
but this soup is so light and so flavorful that you will want to slurp up as much of it as possible, leaving you wondering why you thought you were sick of tomatoes or questioning making soup when it’s warm out!
unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past several months, i’m sure you’re all quite aware of the economic crisis facing our country. while mike and i are lucky enough to remain in our excellent places of employment, and the majority of our friends are still working and not impacted by the tough times, it has brought up a new awareness for me about finances. now, mike and i are no financial gurus, but we’ve been using the website mint.com to set budgets and watch where we’re spending our hard earned money. it’s been eye opening to see how much of our money goes directly to food. and while this amount spent on food isn’t exorbitant, there are definitely a lot of take out sushi expenditures, and we often throw uneaten produce into the worm compost bin.
recently, a good friend sent me an article from cnn.com with ideas for $10 meals and challenged me to “better and more vegetarian friendly version.” so i am responding to the challenge with my own twist on saving money in the food realm, because i got frustrated quantifying how much money i spent on a specific meal, mostly since i pull lots of ingredients from my stocked cupboard (spices, flours, bouillon cubes, canned beans, etc). let’s just say this post was inspired by the article above, but does not direct speak to it…and i promise to hone my pricing skills and get back to you.
after my first foray with making a soup from scratch at home, i began avidly looking for more soup recipes to create in my own kitchen. i landed on a lentil soup from the amazing cookbook eat, drink, and be vegan, by dreena burton, and immediately whipped up a large pot of the thick and homey soup.











