Black Bean Soup from "What's Gaby Cooking: Eat What You Want" by Gaby Dalkin for Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays & for #AbramsDinnerParty

I had heard of Gaby Dalkin and her blog What's Gaby Cooking but I had never really explored it or her recipes until I received her cookbook, What's Gaby Cooking: Eat What You Want: 125 Recipes for Real Life as part of #AbramsDinnerParty. I have just started going through the book and found many recipes to try, the first being her Black Bean Soup. I'll review this cookbook officially after I have tried a couple more recipes (the Baked Feta with Honey & Black Pepper, Goat Cheese Polenta with Cherry Tomatoes & Basil Vinaigrette are next up) so let's get right to the soup.

I stuck to the recipe with the exception of adding a slightly limp red pepper that I needed to use so as not to waste it. I also thought I had a can of chipotles in adobo and didn't buy one when I went to the store so I substituted McCormick Chipotle and Roasted Garlic Seasoning to taste.

Gaby says, "I have such fond childhood memories of my mom making this for us ... and then letting us pile on an insane amount of cheese. We were seriously aggressive.) For this version I've swapped all that cheese for sour cream, which gives the soup the perfect amount of tangy creaminess. It's easy to make, fantastic as leftovers, and freezes well too."

Black Bean Soup 
From What's Gaby Cooking: Eat What You Want by Gaby Dalkin 
(Serves 6 to 8)

2 Tbsp olive oil, plus more for serving
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 stalk celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 Tbsp ground cumin
1 to 2 Tbsp adobo sauce from a can of chipotles in adobo, depending on desired spiciness
kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper
4 (15 oz/430 g) cans black beans, drained & rinsed
2 1/2 cups (600 ml) vegetable broth
juice of 1 lime, plus more lime wedges for serving
1/2 cup (120 ml) sour cream
1 ripe avocado, pitted, peeled and diced
fresh cilantro sprigs
fresh scallions, thinly sliced

Warm the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for an additional minute. Stir in the cumin and adobo sauce and cook until the vegetables are well coated and very fragrant, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the beans and vegetable broth and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low and cook, covered, until the beans are very tender, about 30 minutes.

Transfer half the soup into a blender and blend until smooth. Return the puree to the pot and stir to combine. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt, pepper, and the juice of 1 lime. Divide the soup among bowls, Top with a drizzle of olive oil and some sour cream, avocado, cilantro, and scallions. Serve lime wedges alongside.

Notes/Results: This soup smelled really delicious while cooking and tasted just as good. Smoky, a kick of spice, just a good simple black beans soup. I especially liked that she used 4 cans of beans. It seems like I always add extra cans to bean soup recipes because when you puree half a soup and there aren't enough beans it just isn't chunky enough. This one is definitely chunky. I approve of the toppings too--the sour cream is delicious and you could use a vegan version if you wanted a vegan soup.

   

Many thank to Abrams Books and #AbramsDinner Party for this great new cookbook that I intend to cook a lot from. This post is sponsored by Abrams Books, as part of the Abrams Dinner Party however my thoughts, feelings and experiences cooking from it are my own. #sponsored 

Let's see who awaits in the Souper Sundays kitchen this week:

Shaheen of Allotment2Kitchen brought Pea Shoots and Asparagus Pasta Salad, saying, "Yes, I know what some of you may be thinking - another Pasta Salad! but you will be pleased to note that this one does actually have some homegrown ingredients - Pea shoots. The pea shoots and pea stems and leaves are all from the garden, not the asparagus - that came from the supermarket. ... The pea shoots pasta salad is not heavy in pea flavour, its delicate in flavour. And to punctuate the green, I stirred in some raw diced red pepper for colour and crunch."
  

Tina of Squirrel Head Manor was also feeling the black beans this week and made this unique Black Bean Gnocchi Soup loosely inspired by Kong Skull Island. She said, "I don't have a recipe but I'll tell you what I did. I sauteed an onion and several garlic cloves in olive oil. Once the onions were soft I added a can of black beans and chopped tomatoes. Mix this up well then add broth, salt, ground pepper, roasted garlic powder and basil. I used roughly 4 cups of broth as I like it soupy. Now add gnocchi and simmer."
  

Thank you to Tina and Shaheen for joining me this week!

(If you aren't familiar with Souper Sundays, you can read about of the origins of it here.
If you would like to join in Souper (Soup, Salad, and Sammie) Sundays, I would love to have you! Here's how...

To join in this week's Souper Sunday's linkup with your soup, salad or sandwich:

• Link up your soup (stew, chili, soupy curries, etc. are fine), salad, or sandwich dish, (preferably one from the current week or month--but we'll take older posts too) on the picture link below and leave a comment on this post so I am sure not to miss you. Also please see below for what to do on your blog post that you link up to Souper Sundays in order to be included in the weekly round-up.

and 

On your entry post (on your blog):

• Mention Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen and add a link back to this post. (Not to be a pain but it's polite and only fair to link back to events you link up at--so if you link a post up here without linking back to this post or my blog on your post, it will be removed.)
• You are welcome to add the Souper Sundays logo to your post and/or blog (completely optional).

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Have a happy, healthy week and be well.