Recipe: Black bean Mexican "Sloup"

Have you ever set out to make dinner with a grand master plan?  Alright.  Tonight, I am going to make a black bean and corn soup with some potato and spinach balls.  Fast forward several hours later, post visit to the park on this beautiful spring-like winter day, when I realized, "oh crap!  It's 5pm!"

Don't you just love it?  There is nothing you can do, you can't turn the clock back, you just have to suck it up and throw dinner together.

I promised L last night, that I would make soup for dinner.  He really is a soup nut.  Instead, I opted for a quicker spaghetti frittata.  It was super quick, boil pasta, mix in canned pumpkin puree, basil, oregano, garlic powder and Parmesan cheese (okay, its not vegan, but it needed the cheese), then throw it under the broiler after the bottom browns on the stove.  Quick and easy.  Everyone loved it.  But, L was bummed it wasn't soup.

Tonight, the plan was a Mexican inspired black bean and corn soup.  In my rush though, I forgot to cook my sprouted black beans, so after quite the length of time, boiling them with the veggies, I realized I had made a mistake.  What to do now?  I considered picking out all of the beans, so I could microwave them, thinking that might do the trick.  I considered letting everyone eat them raw, sucking it up.

I decided to finally use my immersion blender to puree the beans, carrots, celery, tomatoes, onions, bell pepper, tomatoes and green chilies to make the beans smaller.  That helped them cook a whole lot quicker.  Now, though, I had this mush, instead of soup.  I added some cumin, about 1/3 a bag of frozen spinach (just because I had it), and 1/3 of a bag of frozen corn.  Now, it really looked like mush.

Oh, and a great benefit to blending the soup?  The kids didn't complain that there were red peppers or tomatoes in there soup.  We always get those complaints/cries.  Today, it was just the mushy appearance of it.

L was destroyed because I said it was going to be soup and it didn't look like it at all.  We topped it with cilantro, avocado and lime juice.  And, when the kids finally agreed to try it, they loved it!  Score!  P even thought it was good.

In the end, it was a successful last minute meal.  I'm calling it Black Bean Mexican Sloup because instead of looking like soup, it looked like slop.  Good thing it tasted better.  And, L decided that he is no longer going to look at his food before he tries it, instead, he's going to close his eyes and take a bite to determine if its worthy of his belly.  Goodness!  Love that boy!

Recipe for Black Bean Mexican Sloup  (you may want to serve this over rice)
Ingredients: 
2 cups of sprouted black beans, cooked
2 carrots, sliced thin
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 boxes of stock
1 Tbsp. cumin
1 can diced tomatoes, the regular size
1 small can of diced green chilies
1 1/2 cups chopped spinach
1 1/2 cups organic corn (do me a favor and use organic when it comes to corn and eat it as God intended.  It really is so much better!)
Garnish with: fresh cilantro, avocado, lime wedges, sour cream and cheese (if not vegan)

Directions:
1. Throw all items into a pot, up to the green chilies.  Bring to a boil, reduce and simmer until veggies are soft.
2. Use immersion blender to puree.
3. Add frozen spinach and corn.  Bring back to boil and cook until warm.
4. Serve with several garnish options.