Pittsburgh "Black and Gold" Soup

This is another Cooking with Frau Doktor Doctor post. Just follow these simple directions, and by the time you are done, you may have something to eat...eventually. Learn from my mistakes!

1. On Monday while apprising the store of foodstuffs relative to the projected length of the stay-at-home order, discover a Tupperware canister of dried black beans. Decide to make the Black Bean and Corn Soup from your Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook on Tuesday night, right before the cheesy tuna pasta runs out.

2. When Dear Husband waits to venture out to the co-op to acquire a few key ingredients until after a care package with homemade masks arrives, finish the pasta on Tuesday after all.

3. The awaited packaged arrives on Wednesday! After DH returns from the the store that afternoon, pull out the cookbook and ingredients. Learn that not only do the beans need to be blanched, but the recommended crock pot time is 8-10 hours. Oops.

4. Rinse 2 1/4 cups black beans, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Cover and let stand for 1 hour. Clean purple-black splatter from the stovetop.

5. Meanwhile, chop 1/2 a large onion and the rest of a desiccated head of garlic. Sure, we can call it 4 cloves. Add to the crock pot with 1 tbsp ground cumin, 1 tsp ground coriander, 1 tsp salt, and a 14 1/2-ounce can of stewed, halved tomatoes that you chop by hand.

6. Substitute an 8-ounce can of drained corn for the 10 ounces of frozen corn in the recipe. Omit the bottled hot pepper sauce and cilantro pepper salsa that your household would never eat.

7. Contemplate trying to recreate the "Mexican spices" that would have been in a "Mexican-style" can of stewed tomatoes. Feel reassured that the soup will be spicy enough when you see that the salsa DH purchased is HOT.

8. Rinse the black beans and add to crock pot. Cook for 4 hours on half heat. Fix tilapia filets, roasted asparagus, and bouillon-cooked quinoa for dinner. Stow crock pot in fridge before bed.

9. After lunch, return crock pot to heating element on high, stirring hourly. Realize too late that, being pre-stewed, the tomatoes were supposed to have been added last. Shortly before serving, mash some of the beans to thicken. Try to ignore that the beans are really rather mealy instead of soft and smushable.

10. Spoon this "Black and Gold" mixture into bowls, top with salsa, and serve with red hot blue corn tortilla chips. Vegetarian serving suggestions include sour cream and Greek salad (tomatoes, cucumber, feta cheese); leave these off to keep it vegan.

This was pretty good, even though it was thinner than I had anticipated, and decidedly more red than "black and gold," especially after I had added a tablespoon of HOT salsa to it. Still, it fit the bill, and DH drained the dregs from his bowl. Finally, it thickened considerably after being left in the fridge in the crock pot instead of being stored in Tupperware (::ahem::). Bon appetit, n'at!

Editor's Note: If you enjoyed this recipe, you might like this one for Stuffed Shell Casserole, my experiment with succotash, or a yummy fall-themed breakfast casserole.