Black Bean Soup with Lemon Cream

It's that time again! The www.enviromom.com Meatless Supper Club! Forgive the lack of photos - with Dear Husband out of town at the moment, dinner was rushed and I completely forgot to take any :*(

Anyway,this week's recipe is one of my stand-bys...it's quick & easy, filling, and delicious. Plus, it uses ingredients that most home cooks have on hand at any given time. Even Dear Husband likes it! It's a recipe from The Dinner Doctor cookbook by Anne Byrn (Yes, she of Cake Doctor fame.). Initially, the thought of a lemon cream on black bean soup really didn't seem all that appealing, but the lemon is *just* enough to brighten up the soup a bit.

So. Here's the recipe (pg. 88-89):

2 cans black beans with their liquid

1 c. canned low-sodium chicken broth (Veggie can work also, though the flavor is a bit different. You can also use homemade broth.)

1/4 c. coarsely chopped onion

1 bay leaf

2 - 3 TB golden or medium-dry sherry (I use dry)

1/2 c. sour cream

1 tsp. freshly grated lemon zest

1. Place the beans with their liquid and the chicken broth, onion, and bay leaf in a 2-quart saucepan and heat over medium-high heat, stirring just to combine. Season with pepper to taste. Cover the pan, bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and let the soup simmer until the flavors blend, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, remove and discard the bay leaf, and stir in 2 TB of the sherry. Taste, and add the remaining 1 TB of sherry, if necessary (I usually use all 3 TB).

2. Transfer the soup to a food processor and coursely puree it or puree it in batches in a blender (I use my hand blender right in the pot); you should still have little bits of onion and black beans. Return the soup to the saucepan and keep warm.

3. Prepare the lemon cream: Combine the sour cream and lemon zest in a small glass or ceramic bowl. Spoon the mixture into a plastic squeeze bottle, if desired.

4. To serve, ladle the soup into serving bowls and garnish each serving with a dollop of lemon cream or drizzle the cream on top of the soup in squiggles.

The recipe serves 4-6 (it says) - we usually get 4.

NOTES:

1. I typically make the lemon cream first, because I like the flavors to blend a bit more before adding it to my bowl of deliciousness!

2. The absolute best way to get terrific zest from any citrus is to use a microplane grater. Nice, small bits that blend right into the sour cream.

3. I typically use reduced-fat sour cream, since the addition of the lemon adds such terrific flavor anyway.

VERDICT:

This is the first time that I've offered it to Little Miss, and unfortunately her first bite was mostly the sour cream - which she very obviously didn't like. Typically, after detesting the first bite, she flat-out refused to try another one. The Young Mister really liked the soup, but NOT with the lemon cream. We've given the soup to him before, but it's been a while and he wasn't very fond of it then...Nice thing is that, since the lemon cream is an end-addition, he can enjoy the soup on its own. As noted, this is a dish that Dear Husband quite enjoys (though he missed out on this one!) - and he loves it with the lemon cream. I served it with a small salad and some french bread from the store - a healthy meal that was very, very quick. Seriously - on the table within 10 minutes!