Black Bean Soup- YUM

I will not gush about this soup.

It is amazing.

It takes a lot of time.

It is TOTALLY worth it.

Black Bean Soup With Roasted Squash
From the New World Kitchen (seriously we have not made anything from this cookbook that was not to.die.for.). You need to buy this book if you like making good food.
Makes 12cups
Serves 8
455 cal/serving (I was close... the CRON-o-Meter may have been off with the ham hock)
See additional nutritional info below

Recipe is as we made it

6oz bacon
1T olive oil
1 Scotch Bonnet Chili (may or may not have been??)
3 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1 large vidalia onion
1 medium red bell pepper, diced
3 stalks of celery
1T cumin (called for 2T toasted and ground cumin seeds)
2 bay leaves
1c Spanish dry sherry (very important)
5c canned black beans, rinsed (called for 2c dry beans soaked overnight)
1 smoked ham hock (also very important, must be smoked)
3qt Chicken stock (we added it then had to remove some so everything could fit into our 5qt dutch oven)
Salt and pepper to taste

For the Squash (Calabaza)
2lb calabaza (we used an acorn/winter squash) peeled and cut into bite size pieces
2T melted butter
2T sugar
1tsp salt
0.5tsp fresh ground pepper

For the Crema
1c Sour cream (we used lowfat)
juice from 1/2 lime
salt to taste
0.5tsp toasted ground coriander seeds

1) Cook bacon in olive oil (seems counter-intuitive to me) in large soup pot over medium heat, until crisp
2) Stir in chili pepper and garlic
3) Turn up heat to medium high and add the onion, bell pepper, and celery- stir to coat
4) Let veggies caramelize (10min)
5) Add cumin, bay leaves and sherry- bring to simmer and cook until the liquid is reduced to half
6) Add the beans, ham hock, and stock
7) Skim the impurities off the top and reduce heat to medium-low
8) Simmer until the beans are tender, but not mushy- 1-1.5hrs

In the meantime prepare the squash
1) preheat oven to 350
2) Combine all the squash ingredients and stir to coat
3) Place on roasting pan and roast until squash is fork tender (30-40min)

For the crema:
whisk together all ingredients in a bowl and chill until ready to serve

9) Remove bay leaves from broth
10) Scoop 2.5cups from the pot and puree in blender (this gives the soup more body)
11) Simmer for additional 30m

Enjoy soup topped with creme!!

General (34%)
===========================================
Energy | 455.1 kcal 27%
Protein | 29.7 g 59%
Carbs | 45.4 g 35%
Fiber | 9.3 g 37%
Fat | 17.7 g 27%
Water | 534.4 g 20%

Vitamins (40%)
===========================================
Vitamin A | 900.4 IU 39%
Folate | 251.6 µg 63%
B1 (Thiamine) | 0.9 mg 82%
B2 (Riboflavin) | 0.4 mg 34%
B3 (Niacin) | 8.4 mg 60%
B5 (Pantothenic Acid)| 1.7 mg 34%
B6 (Pyridoxine) | 0.7 mg 56%
B12 (Cyanocobalamin) | 1.2 µg 48%
Vitamin C | 35.7 mg 48%
Vitamin D | 2.0 IU 1%
Vitamin E | 1.0 mg 7%
Vitamin K | 10.1 µg 11%

Minerals (51%)
===========================================
Calcium | 128.5 mg 13%
Copper | 0.8 mg 88%
Iron | 5.4 mg 30%
Magnesium | 133.8 mg 43%
Manganese | 0.8 mg 44%
Phosphorus | 445.6 mg 64%
Potassium | 1436.1 mg 31%
Selenium | 26.1 µg 47%
Sodium | 2095.2 mg 140%
Zinc | 3.7 mg 46%

Lipids (21%)
===========================================
Saturated | 6.0 g 30%
Omega-3 | 0.2 g 22%
Omega-6 | 1.7 g 15%
Cholesterol | 56.7 mg 19%