Winter Hiatus Recipe! Quick & Easy Black Bean Soup

Hi everyone. In honor of the Super Bowl and, more importantly, the fact that I am busy furnishing  our new second home in La Quinta, CA, we will be taking a few weeks off from posting on Cooking with Larue. Don't worry....we will be back soon with more sumptuous recipes!!!!!

Larue

Quick & Easy Black Bean Soup

Serves 4-6

Quick & Easy Black Bean Soup

Were you ever making a Southwestern or Mexican dinner and just needed one more thing to complete the meal….but had no time to pull something new and complex?  It seems to happen to me all too often.  I do love the complex layering of flavors associated with a great mole or even the simple vegetables and proteins thrown together for an amazing taco.  But I always seem to need one more thing. This quick and easy black bean soup is your answer. Everyone loves it. It freezes beautifully and truly comes together in under 30 minutes. With use of a food processor, you can pull it off even faster…really!  It will become your go-to warm quick soups.

• ¼ C olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1-14 ½ oz can ready-cut tomatoes
• 1-4 oz. can diced green chilies
• 1 Tb dried thyme, crumbled
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 4 – 16 oz. cans black beans, drained & rinsed
• 2 C or more of chicken or vegetable broth
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• Dash of cayenne (optional)
• 1-2 Tb fresh lime juice
• Garnishes: sour cream or crème fraiche, cilantro, sliced green onions, toasted cumin seed, grated cheese (see below for specifics)

All the fixins' 

Chopping the onions

Heat olive oil in large pot. Add onion, bell pepper and garlic. Saute until the onion is tender, about 10 minutes. Mix in canned tomatoes and their juices, chilies, thyme and cumin. Reduce heat to low and simmer until vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes.

Add beans and 2 C chicken or vegetable broth. Puree soup in batches in your food processor or blender. Return soup to pot and return to a simmer.  Season with salt and pepper, add lime juice and heat through. If it is too thick, add additional broth.  It is now ready to serve and enjoy with your favorite garnishes.

Before puree

Apres puree!

When in a rush, I simply grate some cheese, chop a little green onion and sprinkle with some sprigs of cilantro and perhaps a dollop of sour cream or crème fraiche. Pretty. If you want to get fancy – make this wonderful toasted cumin seed crème fraiche.

Toasted Cumin Seed Crème Fraiche (hacked from Bobby Flay)

• 1 Tb whole cumin seeds
• 1 C crema or crème fraiche or swap for yogurt or sour cream
• Salt & Pepper

Place the cumin in a small sauté pan over medium heat. Toast until lightly golden brown. Place in spice grinder or mortar and pestle and grind until coarse. Stir it into the crème and season with salt and pepper, to taste. 

If you have the time – this is a wonderful plus to this simple, yet delicious, soup. It is one of those toppings that is in lock-step with the soup: the richest, creamiest, smokiest accent to a spicy hearty soup.

Enjoy!  I know you will.

Larue

Grilled Lemon Chicken with Peanut Satay Dip

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Grilled Lemon Chicken with Peanut Satay Dip

Serves 8 – 10 appetizers

Grilled Lemon Chicken with Peanut Satay Dip

Hands down – this is the very best satay – aka grilled chicken skewers with peanut sauce – that I have ever tasted. I know the list of ingredients is daunting but this is pertty easy to throw together.  I serve the sauce with so many things but this time will use it to complement the grilled lemon chicken posted last week. I have already regaled you with the wonders of the lemon chicken – but now the highlight of this post is the complexity of flavors in the peanut sauce. 

Lots of ingredients!!

Freshly squeezed lime juice makes all the difference.  The dark sesame oil can easily be found in the Asian section of your grocer.  It tastes just like roasted sesame seeds rather than plain flavorless oil.

For Grilled Lemon Chicken:

• ¾ C freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
• ¾ C good olive oil
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 Tb minced fresh thyme leaves (½ tsp dried)
• 2 lb boneless chicken breasts, halved and skin removed 

For the Satay Dip:

• 1 Tb good olive oil
• 1 Tb dark sesame oil
• 2/3 C small-diced red onion (1 small onion)
• 1½ tsp minced garlic (2 cloves)
• 1½ tsp minced fresh ginger root
• ¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 Tb good red wine vinegar
• ¼ C light brown sugar, packed
• 2 Tb soy sauce (I like Tamari brand)
• ½ C smooth peanut butter
• ¼ C ketchup
• 2 Tb dry sherry
• 1½ tsp freshly squeezed lime juice

For grilled lemon chicken: Whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and thyme. Pour over chicken breasts in a nonreactive pan or in plastic resealable bag. Add chicken and marinate in the refrigerator at least 6 hours, preferably overnight. Heat the grill and cook the chicken breasts for 8-10 minutes on each side, until just cooked through. Cool slightly and cut diagonally in ½ “ thick slices. Skewer with wooden sticks.

Grilled chicken

For the Peanut Satay Dip: Cook olive oil, sesame oil, red onion, garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes in a small heavy bottomed pan on medium heat until the onion is transparent, 10-15 minutes. 

The peanut sauce ingredients

Whisk in the vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, peanut butter, ketchup, sherry and lime juice; cook for 1 minute more. Cool and use as a dip for the grilled lemon chicken skewers.

With the peanut butter stirred in

The final product

The dip will lasts for a month in the refrigerator and freeze for up to 6 months.  How great is that! It can be used paired with so many things if, by some miracle, you have some left. Served with grilled meat – beef, pork or with raw vegetables or on your finger…well that has accidentally happened on occasion.

Enjoy!

Larue

Grilled Lemon Chicken Salad

 Grilled Lemon Chicken Salad

Serves: 6

 Grilled Lemon Chicken Salad

We are blessed with an extremely productive Meyer Lemon Tree in our back yard. This creates a need to identify ways to use wonderful sweet lemons. I love this salad at lunch – and as you will see, the marinated lemon chicken does double time and works beautifully served as an appetizer with satay sauce. (Recipe to follow next week)

The mix of fresh vegetables can be easily altered to suit the season or content of your refrigerator.  This week I used both blanched green beans, sugar snap peas and bell peppers.  In the spring, one could easily substitute thin blanched asparagus for the sugar snap peas and beans.  If you love lemon – and lemon-y flavor –this is your dish. The longer you marinate the chicken, the better.

For Grilled Lemon Chicken:

• ¾ C freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
• ¾ C good olive oil
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 Tb minced fresh thyme leaves (½ tsp dried)
• 2 lbs. boneless chicken breasts, halved and skin removed 

For remainder in Salad:

• ¼ C freshly squeezed lemon juice (1 large lemon)
• ¼ C good extra virgin olive oil
• 1 C sugar snap peas, stems and strings removed, quickly blanched
• ½ C blanched green beans
• ½ red bell pepper, julienned
• ½ yellow bell pepper, julienned
• 1 lemon, thinly sliced, seeds removed
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper

For grilled lemon chicken: Whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and thyme. Pour over chicken breasts in a nonreactive pan or in plastic resealable bag. Add chicken and marinate in the refrigerator at least 6 hours, preferably overnight. Heat the grill and cook the chicken breasts for 8-10 minutes on each side, until just cooked through.

Chicken in the marinade

Grilled to perfection!

To make the salad:  Allow chicken to sit at room temperature for 20+ minutes to cool before chilling in refrigerator.  Slice the breasts diagonally into ½ “ or less thick slices. Toss them in a bowl with their juices plus the additional lemon juice, olive oil, sugar snap peas, green beans, red and yellow bell peppers, lemon slices, salt and pepper.

Great with green beans

....and with snap peas

Seasoning to taste and serve cold or at room temperature. It is a perfect picnic entrée! Alternatively, and what I often do, is marinate and grill additional chicken to slice and use as an appetizer served with satay – see recipe next week for details!

Larue