Monday, September 28, 2009

Cuban Black Bean Soup




Since I'm not Cuban, don't think I know anyone who is Cuban, and didn't eat black bean soup when I was in Cuba, I can't vouch for the authenticity of the title of this recipe. I can, however, tell you that, regardless of nationality, the end product is currently making my belly happy.


Finally, a recipe that wasn't too hard to make! The most PITA part was chopping the bloody onion, primarily because I'm still quite slow at it (I chop each wretched onion into wee tiny pieces because I don't like eating onion), and because my eyes always sting and tear up which makes using my cute but sharp paring knife more dangerous.


A horrid thing happened to me on my way to buy the ingredients at lunchtime today: I set out with my raincoat on, expecting some precipitation although the computer said it was simply cloudy and windy. I never know what the actual outside conditions are before I get there because I slave, er work in a windowless cave in the basement of a hospital and I don't smoke. Anyway, off I went and sure enough, it was raining a bit. No matter. What did matter was the sudden downpour complete with hail (HAIL!!!) that started out of the blue when I was halfway to the grocery across the street. I trudged for a bit, soaked through from mid-thigh downward and shivering, then finally admitted defeat and returned to get my car keys. I knew I couldn't work for another 2 hours or so with soaked pants and water in my shoes. I quickly went home (in the sunshine!) to change, but as I was waiting to turn left at the light to return to work, the car ahead of me turned for some bizarre reason right into the path of a car coming straight. SMASH!! Oh geez, this is terrible! I didn't know what to do. The two drivers seemed to be ok, not so much the cars, and there were a bunch of people running to help so I went back to work, but am still somewhat shaken up. If there's a bright side, at least they were right outside the hospital and I heard 2 ambulances coming within a minute or two.


This time, I bought fresh garlic, I used the sodium-reduced chicken stock, and I substituted a few shakes of paprika for the cumin since I didn't have any cumin and have 2 containers of paprika. They're similar, aren't they? Well, they are now. As evidenced by the "artistic" smiley face in the photo above, I used the fat-free sour cream lounging in the fridge for decoration and to cool the soup down a bit. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go get another serving, mmm.....

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