On Tuesday morning, I cooked a package of Bob’s Red Mill black beans, which I had soaked overnight. I used most of the beans (3 lbs.) to make Black Bean Pumpkin Soup, a recipe from Deb Perelman’s Smitten Kitchen. I made some minor changes, using onion rather than shallots, which I don’t have, and substituting 1 cup crushed tomatoes left over from another recipe for 1 cup drained canned tomatoes that get pureed with the beans. I deleted the salt and reduced the cumin to 1 ½ tsp., since I know my limits. I replaced butter with olive oil, and a 16 oz. can pumpkin with about 3 cups of my puree from the freezer. I had a bit of chopped ham, which I added, but I didn’t have 8 oz. I deleted toe 3-4 Tbs. of sherry vinegar, as I don’t have it, but I did add the ½ cup sherry. In place of the 4 cups beef broth, I used 2 cups boiling water with a heaping tablespoon of Penzey’s beef base, and I added 2 cups of the black bean liquid, because why waste it? It makes a lot of soup, and I had to change over to my 5 ½ quart Dutch oven from a 4 quart. I’ll be eating it this week for lunch (and may freeze a couple of servings) by myself, since my husband does not care for black beans or cumin.
I also made applesauce with some “seconds” apples that have been in the refrigerator for a while and looked it. The applesauce came out well, and I froze it for Thanksgiving, since my husband does not care for cranberries.
For Tuesday dinner, I made a stir-fry using leftover rotisserie chicken, soba noodles, green onion, celery, carrots, red bell pepper, mushrooms, and broccoli.
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