Black Bean Soup

I had planned on posting a picture of this soup but I totally spaced it when I served it (we had company, if that makes it better) and we ate it all up - even our company's six year old son who took one look at it and said, "That doesn't even look good. I don't want to eat it." I have to agree with him that this is not a pretty soup but after taking one bite to try it, he gobbled up his whole bowl and asked for more. So on that note, here is my recipe for black bean soup:

Black Bean Soup

1 onion, finely chopped or 2 Tbsp dehydrated onions
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cups stock
4 cups cooked black beans
½ tsp salt
½ Tbsp cumin
1 Tbsp lemon juice or juice from ½ of a lemon
1½ Tbsp cornstarch
1½ Tbsp cold water


1. In a pot combine the onions, garlic, and stock. Simmer for about 10 minutes.

2. Add 1 cup beans, salt, and cumin. Simmer for about 5 minutes.

3. Puree soup using either immersion blender or a regular blender (do it in batches).

4. Pour pureed soup back to the pot. Add remaining beans and lemon juice. This should be a thicker soup, but if it is looking too dry, add some water in ¼ cup increments.

5. In a small bowl with a lid combine the cornstarch and cold water, replace lid, and shake until combined. Pour cornstarch mixture into soup and stir continually until thickened and heated through.

Makes 4 servings
930 total calories (232 Calories per serving)

Naan

Naan is a traditional Indian flat bread that is often used in place of silverware at meals. It is often made with white flour but we don't use white flour so I made these with whole wheat flour. They were perfect with our yogurt chicken.

Naan

3 cups whole wheat flour, plus more for dusting
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp oil
1 tsp honey
¾ cup water
4 tsp plain (unsweetened) yogurt
¼ cup butter, melted (or oil)


1. Combine flour, yeast, salt, oil, and honey in large bowl. Add water and mix well. Add yogurt and mix until a cohesive ball of dough is formed. Cover with a towel and let sit for about an hour.

2. Divide dough into 8 pieces, shape pieces into balls (use flour to keep dough from sticking). Allow balls to sit, covered with towel, for about 20 minutes or until they double in size.

3. Preheat oven to 500°F. Coat each ball with small amount of flour and roll out to about ½” thick.

4. Place flattened dough on baking sheet (it works really well to bake two at a time on a cookie sheet). Brush with melted butter then bake for just a few (2-5) minutes (watch carefully!). Once they are baked, wrap them loosely in a towel until the rest are finished. Serve warm.

Makes 8 servings
1900 total calories (238 Calories per serving)

Yogurt Chicken

Rarely do we have meat. When we do it is usually a whole chicken because they are cheap and I can get at least 4 meals out of one chicken. Sometimes, however, we need a change so we have something exciting like drumsticks or thighs (because they come in large, inexpensive packages so I can just freeze them and thaw only what we will eat for a particular meal). One of the most delicious meals you can make with things like drumsticks is yogurt chicken. This is an Indian inspired dish that is not spicy but very flavorful. I first found this recipe in the book Cooking the Indian Way by Vijay Madavan at our local library while I was looking for books to teach our eldest son about Indian food and culture. Since then I have tweaked it to fit our tastes. Here it what I have come up with:

Yogurt Chicken

6 – 8 pieces of chicken (drumsticks, thighs…)
1 tsp salt
1 cup plain (unsweetened) yogurt
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 Tbsp curry powder
4 Tbsp butter, melted


1. Prick chicken several times with a fork and place in large bowl (preferably with a lid). In a small bowl combine salt, yogurt, ginger, garlic, and curry powder, pour over chicken, cover bowl, and refrigerate for 6 – 8 hours.

2. To cook chicken, preheat oven to 400°F. Pour half of the melted butter in a 13”x9” baking pan. Place chicken in roasting pan and pour yogurt mixture on top. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, reduce heat to 350°F, baste the chicken with the yogurt mixture and pour the remainder of the butter over the chicken. Return to the oven and bake for about 30 minutes or until chicken is done, basting about every 10 minutes.

3. To serve, don’t forget to pour the sauce over the chicken (it also helps to have some delicious naan to soak up any remaining sauce).

Makes 8 servings
1600 total calories (200 Calories per serving)

The Staff of Life

Make homemade bread. Just give it a try. It is so wonderful. Your home will smell warm and delicious, you will feel a nice sense of accomplishment, and you may never want to eat store-bought bread ever again. Or is that just me? Here is my recipe for Whole Wheat Bread (I was given a similar recipe at the LDS Home Storage Center aka Cannery, I made a few modifications, and voila!):

Whole Wheat Bread

4 cups warm water
3 Tbsp yeast
1½ Tbsp sugar
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup honey
½ cup vital gluten (optional)
1 Tbsp salt
7-10 cups whole wheat flour

1. Rinse mixing bowl in warm water (to warm it up). To the warm bowl add water, yeast, and sugar. Mix and allow to sit until foamy, about 5 minutes.

2. Add the oil, honey, gluten, salt, and about 3 cups of flour. Mix the dough in a mixer adding flour slowly until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl (you want a thicker dough). Knead the dough for 9 minutes in the mixer.

3. Grease four loaf pans (about 8.5”). Form dough into loaves and place into pans. Cover with a towel and let rise for 20-25 minutes.

4. Place on the upper rack of a cold (not preheated) oven. Set the temperature at 350°F and bake for 28-30 minutes. The bread will rise more as the oven heats up.

Makes 4 loaves, approximately 16 slices each
5381 total calories (78 Calories per serving)

Now, don't be discouraged if you don't have a mixer, this bread is really easy to make by hand as well. Just do it all the same except once you can't really stir the ingredients together start to knead it with your hands. Once a cohesive ball of dough is formed, turn it onto a lightly floured surface and knead it adding more flour as necessary to get to 7-10 cups. Knead for about 10 minutes, form loaves, place in pans and continue with the directions above.

Also, my mixer can't handle 10 cups of flour so I halve the recipe and make two loaves at a time. The only real tricky part is halving the honey and oil. I don't worry about it, I just estimate them by adding them together in the same measuring cup (they will add up to 1/3 cup). Sometimes you get more honey, sometimes more oil. It still works out just fine. Do you think people 200 years ago were as precise as we think we are?

Don't feel limited to a plain loaf of bread, try to add herbs or cinnamon (with the flour) for more flavors. I added cinnamon (1 Tbsp) to one loaf and used it for French Toast (Thanks for the breakfast idea Tammy!).