Butternut & Bean Soup with Couscous

There's nothing like a good soup to help you forget the troubles of your day.

I've made this one – from the January issue of Good Housekeeping magazine – a few times now. It's somehow light and filling. And the leftovers taste even better since the flavors get a chance to develop. (If your family is 2 kids and 2 adults, you'll probably have leftovers.)

Only one of my boys liked this, but since my husband keeps talking about eating more beans for dinner, the kids are determined not to.

The mix-in calls for couscous, but I think quinoa would work just as well.

Mangia! Mangia!
Andrea

Butternut & Bean Soup with Couscous
Inspired by this Good Housekeeping recipe

1 large butternut squash
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and minced
6 cups low sodium chicken broth
6 sprigs fresh thyme
1 15 ounce can white beans (like Northern) drained and rinsed
1 15 ounce can chick peans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup raw couscous (or quinoa)
1/4 cup shelled pistachios, chopped
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup dried apricots, finely chopped
2 green onions, sliced

Cut the squash to separate the neck from the base. Reserve base for another use. Peel neck of butternut squash and chop into 1/2 inch cubes.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add squash and cover. Cook for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

In a Dutch oven, add onion and 1 tablespoon oil and cover. Cook for 6 minutes, stirring often. Add garlic and ginger and cook for 1 minute. Add chicken broth, thyme and squash. Bring to a boil.

Using a fork, mash the white beans and add to the soup. Add the chick peas and stir. Reduce heat to low and simmer.

Prepare the couscous or quinoa according to package directions. Fluff with fork and gently stir in pistachios, cilantro, apricots and green onions.

Ladle soup into bowls and top with couscous mix-in.

Slow Cooker 15-Bean Soup with Sausage and Spinach

For dinner in the winter, I'm satisfied with a warm bowl of beans. Growing up we'd often have beans and cornbread. Not fancy beans — just thrown in the crockpot with water or broth, a diced up onion,  that "ham" flavoring packet and maybe a leftover ham bone. And it was good. This is better, healthier even thanks to the spinach. In fact, I've made these beans twice in recent weeks and am officially declaring it my official, go-to, wintertime bean recipe.

The recipe is adapted from a favorite line of cookbooks: America's Test Kitchen's Healthy Slow Cooker Revolution. I made a few tweaks. For starters, I omitted the mushrooms (just sounds unappealing to me to cook mushrooms and beans together for 9 or so hours). I increased the amount of sausage from 8 ounces to 9-12 ounces (for easier math) as sausage typically comes in 12-ounce, 4-link packs. Likewise, I upped the spinach by an ounce, because the baby spinach I buy comes in a 5-ounce clamshell container. Lastly, the second time I made it, I used a 4-ounce container of chicken broth and the 2 cups of vegetable broth leftover in my fridge. Why open another container of chicken broth?

Anyhow, if you are craving an easy dinner that takes the edge off the winter chill, try this out. Tweak it; make it your own.

XOXO,
Amy

PS: A great thing to serve with this: my Family Cornbread.

Slow Cooker 15-Bean Soup with Sausage and Spinach
Adapted from Healthy Slow Cooker Revolution

9-12 ounces (3-4 links) hot or sweet Italian chicken sausage, sliced 1/2 inch thick
1 onion, chopped fine
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
6 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
8 ounce bag of 15-bean soup mix, flavoring packet(s) discarded
2 bay leaves
1/4 teaspoon salt (plus more to taste)
Black pepper to taste
5 ounces (5 cups) baby spinach

Microwave sausage, onion, garlic, thyme and pepper flakes in bowl until onion is softened (about 5 minutes), stirring halfway through. Transfer to slow cooker. Stir in broth, water, beans, bay leaves and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add black pepper — to taste — now or later, if desired. Cover and cook on low until beans are tender — 9 to 11 hours on low or 6 to 8 hours on high.

Discard bay leaves. Stir in spinach and let sit until slightly wilted, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.

Black Bean & Sweet Potato Burritos

After the insanity of the holidays, I'm struggling to get back to my routine. Back to the kitchen. Back to blogging. Back to doing laundry before I run out of clean socks...again.

When I'm struggling to get cooking, I always turn to the HDHH archives. It feels like a reading a journal. I remember when the investment dudes gave me the recipe for Baked Oatmeal, when I used to eat Peanut Butter & Stuff Sandwiches on my business trips to San Francisco, making Spring on Toast with Amy, when Therese introduced me to her Corn & Tomato Salad, my childhood babysitter who inspired Bacon Cheeseburger Rice, making Salmon with Dill Cream Sauce with Kelly and Jill, watching my mom bake Butterscotch Cashew Bars. These are good memories. And certainly inspiration enough to get hot dinner on the table.

It had been too long since I made Black Bean & Sweet Potato Burritos, a recipe I first tested for dinner co-op with Therese back in 2011. These vegetarian burritos were so stinking good, a perfect way to usher in the New Year and a return to culinary pursuits.

Do you guys have any cooking inspiration for 2017? We'd love to hear it!

Let's get cooking!
Erin

Black Bean & Sweet Potato Burritos
Adapted from An Occasion to Gather
Originally posted September 23, 2011
Serves: 4-6

1 very large (or two small) sweet potato(s), peeled and cut into small pieces*
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 large onion, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2-4 ounces diced green chiles (Depending on how spicy you like things!)
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons coriander
2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
4 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
8 flour tortillas
Salsa and sour cream, for serving

Preheat oven to 350 or 425 degrees. (See Baking Note below for details on baking temperature.)

Place sweet potato in a saucepan with enough water to cover and a hearty pinch of salt. Bring water to boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and allow sweet potatoes to cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until   they're easily pierced with a fork. Drain sweet potatoes and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, and chiles and saute, stirring often, for 7 minutes. Stir in cumin and coriander and cook for another minute, until the spices are fragrant. Remove onion mixture from heat and set aside.

Combine sweet potatoes and black beans and mash them together with a potato masher or whatever mashing implement you prefer. (I like my burrito filling to have some texture, so I didn't mash it too much. Just use your best judgement.) Stir in cooked onion mixture, cheese, and cilantro.

Evenly divide the filling between the tortillas. Roll burritos up tightly and place seam-side-down in a 9 x 13 baking dish.

Baking Note: I've experimented with a couple different ways to bake these burritos, so I'll give you options. If you like crisp burritos and/or you want to get dinner on the table fast, crank up the oven to 425. Brush a little melted butter on top of the prepped burritos in the pan and bake for 10-15 minutes, until burritos are heated through and the tops are golden brown and crisp. If you like your tortillas to remain soft and/or you have more time to kill before dinner, cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 5 minutes if you'd like to crisp up the tops a little bit.

Serve with salsa and sour cream.

*If you have leftover cooked sweet potatoes, this is a great way to use them up! I made extra roasted sweet potatoes, and they were delicious in this recipe. And with leftovers, you're one step closer to dinner.

Pumpkin Black Bean Chili

According to both the calendar and the weather, fall is officially here. This means it's time to break out the cozy sweaters, the flannel sheets, and, perhaps most importantly, the crock pot.

The slow cooker totally makes me feel like Wonder Woman. Why, yes, I can pick up the dry cleaning, grocery shop, clean the bathroom, and defeat crime while dinner cooks away on my kitchen counter. No cape necessary, thank-you-very-much.

To help you channel your inner super hero, the folks at Red Gold Tomatoes are having a slow cooker bonanza over on their Facebook page. They are giving away two Crock-Pots each day until October 8. (That's a lot of slow cookers, people.) They're also featuring some tasty-looking recipes in case you're lacking dinner inspiration.

Speaking of dinner inspiration, puh-lease check out this Pumpkin Black Bean Chili. We usually consider pumpkin for sweets: pumpkin lattes, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cake. But don't put baby pumpkin in a corner. Try it out in a savory recipe, too. It adds delicious richness and depth.

Without further ado, let's get slow cooking. The world needs a few more super heroes.

Black Bean & Pumpkin Chili
Adapted from Red Gold Tomatoes
Serves: 10

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
1 pound ground turkey or chicken
Salt and pepper
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
2-3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (14.5 ounce) can Red Gold Petite Diced Tomatoes with Lime Juice and Cilantro
1 (15 ounce) can solid-pack pumpkin
For serving: shredded cheese, sour cream, chopped avocado, tortilla chips (optional)

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and ground turkey. Cook, stirring occasionally, until turkey is cooked through, about 8 minutes. Season generously with salt and pepper. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add chili powder, cumin, and coriander and cook for 1 minute to toast the spices. Stir in 2 cups chicken broth and scrape the bottom of the pan to incorporate any browned bits.

Transfer mixture to slow cooker. Add beans, tomatoes, and pumpkin and stir to combine. If the mixture looks too thick, stir in additional cup of chicken broth. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours.

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with your favorite chili toppings.

P.S. The kind people at Red Gold Tomatoes provided me with tomatoes to test this recipe, but the opinions are all mine. 

Quinoa with Black Beans and Sweet Potatoes

This recipe is a combination of other things I've shared with you recently. In other words, I was using up leftovers.

I cooked the quinoa in my rice cooker. If you don't have a rice cooker (or if you don't feel like using it), feel free to cook the quinoa on the stove. I've included instructions for that below.

I cooked the sweet potato in my crock pot. I've become friends with that kitchen workhorse, and I've decided it must be used in every season. Nobody puts baby my crock pot in a corner.

Using my handy-dandy electric appliances is easy, hands-free, and it keeps my kitchen cool. That is probably my number one summer cooking goal: Keep it cool. It's applicable on so many levels.

Quinoa with Black Beans and Sweet Potatoes
Serves: 4

1 cup quinoa
2 cups vegetable broth (or substitute chicken broth or water)
Juice from 1/2 lime (about 1 tablespoon)
1.5 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon chili powder
15 ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 medium sweet potato, cooked, peeled, and cut into bite-sized pieces
4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

Cook quinoa in vegetable broth either in a rice cooker or on the stove. (If you're using a rice cooker, check out this post for instructions.) To cook quinoa on the stove, combine quinoa and broth in a medium-sized pan over medium-high heat. Bring liquid to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until quinoa is tender, about 15-20 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine cooked quinoa, lime juice, parsley, chili powder, and black beans. Gently fold in sweet potato. Sprinkle goat cheese over the top and serve.

Succotash with Green Beans

Do you know what succotash is? If you asked me this question a few days ago, I would have said, "What? Like 'suffering succotash'? That's what Sylvester the cat says on Looney Tunes."

Turns out succotash is also a vegetable dish.

According to Wikipedia (my trusted source for all essential information), succotash is "a food dish consisting primarily of corn and lima beans and other shell beans." Since most of the ingredients are pretty cheap, succotash was popular during the Great Depression. Well, folks back then ate pretty well despite the dire circumstances of their bank accounts. Succotash is good!

I stumbled on a recipe for this delectable side when I was combing epicurious.com for a new way to use green beans. Although green beans are not corn or lima beans or other shell beans, I'm glad my search resulted in this recipe. The husband and I gulped it down like it was going out of style.

And neither of us suffered. Not one bit.

Succotash with Green Beans
Adapted from epicurious.com
Serves: 4-6

8 ounces green beans, ends trimmed and halved
1/2 tablespoon butter
1 cup frozen lima beans, thawed
1 cup corn kernels*
1/2 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning
Salt and pepper

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add green beans and cook for 4 minutes, until crisp-tender. Immediately plunge the green beans into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking.

Heat butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add green beans and saute 1 minute. Add lima beans and corn and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are crisp-tender. Stir in Old Bay. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

*Since it's March, I just used frozen corn that I'd thawed. But I can just imaging how delicious it would be in August with corn cut straight from the cob.

Black Bean and Cheese Quesadillas

Sunday nights are always my least favorite day of the week. The wonderful, worry-free weekend is wrapping up, and I'm getting ready to head back to the rat race bright and early the next day. I shlump around the house and frown. It's really quite pathetic.

And did I mention that I usually go to the grocery store after work on Mondays? So in addition to my mournful mood, there is no food in the cupboards, and the fridge is bare.

Needless to say, I don't enjoy cooking dinner on Sunday nights. If I didn't have such a handsome and hungry husband to feed, I'd just eat ice cream and go to bed early.

So I whip up super simple meals on Sunday nights. Hot dinners that exercise my cooking creativity to the max. I was pretty pleased with both the deliciousness and ease of a recent Sunday supper.  I hope it's inspiration for you next time you can barely drag your sorry buns into the kitchen. Remember this, if I can do it on a Sunday night, anyone can.

Black Bean and Cheese Quesadillas

Serves: 2

1/3 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained

1/4 teaspoon chili powder

2 flour tortillas

Salt and pepper

1/2 cup shredded cheese (Although I didn't have any on hand, I bet Pepper Jack would be particularly delicious.)

Butter

Sour cream and salsa, for serving

With a fork, mash together black beans and chili powder. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spread black bean mixture onto one tortilla.

Top with shredded cheese and the second tortilla. Butter the top and bottom tortillas like you would a grilled cheese sandwich. Heat a skillet over medium-high and add quesadilla to the pan. Cook for about 8 minutes, flipping halfway through, until the cheese is melted. Cut quesadilla into 6 wedges. Serve with lots of sour cream and salsa.

"Taco" Tomato Soup
Serves: 4

Campbell's tomato soup, made according to package directions

A handful of crushed Doritos (We used the throwback taco-flavored Doritos.)

Sprinkle crushed Doritos on top of tomato soup. Declare that it is Taco Tomato Soup, very different than regular, plain, old tomato soup, and that it is good.  

Super Easy Meal #1: Pork Chops & Applesauce

We're all too busy playing with our Christmas presents to worry much about dinner. So, this week I'm offering a couple easy meals.

Super Easy Meal #1: Pork Chops & Applesauce
For this meal, you'll need a little help from your local butcher. Swing my his meat case and peruse the selection. I'll betcha he's got a tray of plump pork chops brimming with golden stuffing. See 'em? Maybe over there between the chicken breasts and the rump roasts? Yep, now you've got it. Get enough stuffed chops for your family. Grab some green beans (preferable the ones that some kind soul has gone to the trouble of trimming for you) and applesauce, and you're ready to go.

Once you're home, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Meanwhile, prep your green beans for roasting. Wash, trim, and spread them on a large baking sheet. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with lots of salt and pepper. Then set the tray aside.

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium-high in a large oven-safe skillet. Generously sprinkle your pork chops with salt and pepper. Once the oil is hot, brown the pork chops for about 3 minutes on each side. (You'll know the meat is ready to flip when it doesn't stick to the pan.) Pop the whole pan in the preheated oven, and cook for about 15 minutes, until the pork chops reach an internal temperature of 145 degrees. Tent the chops with foil and allow them to rest for 5-10 minutes.

When the pork chops have about 5 minutes left to cook, add the tray of green beans to the oven to cook.  They'll need about 12-15 minutes total. Stir them around halfway through. (Check out this post for a detailed description of roasting green beans.) You want them to be crisp-tender with golden brown spots.

Serve the pork chops with applesauce and green beans. (Oh, and if you're feeling ambitious, make your own applesauce. It's delish.)

Black Bean and Cheese Chimichangas

The husband was watching the Packers game last Sunday, and I decided to make him some hot dinner. Sunday night meals often consists of PB&J or cereal, but the husband had a hard day working in the garage, and I thought he deserved something special.

I would fry him something.

I should mention that the husband loves fried food. I should also mention that I'm afraid of frying food. Shortly after we got hitched, I tried to make taquitos. My first attempt at frying went, shall we say, poorly. It tasted like we were eating little, round sponges of oil. Bleck. Also, with dubious ventilation in our kitchen, it smelled like the state fair in our house for far too long. Not classy.

But despite my fear, I was determined to fry up some grub for the husband. I tweaked a taquito filling recipe I found in Real Simple last month, and went to town. The first two chimichangas didn't turn out quite right. They were...burnt.

Take two, however, was much better. When I presented the chimichangas to the husband, I was a bit nervous. Would they meet the same fate as my taquitos? To my utter delight, the husband had a big smile on his face after tasting my creation. "These are GOOD!" he exclaimed.

From now on I will be known as Erin, the happy housewife who's not afraid to fry.

Black Bean and Cheese Chimichangas
Serves 2-4

15 ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon lime juice (juice of 1/2 lime)
Salt and pepper
4 flour tortillas
Vegetable oil for frying

In a medium-sized bowl, mash together beans, cheese, chili powder, garlic powder, and lime juice.

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Evenly divide bean mixture among tortillas. Roll tortillas up tightly.

Heat 1/2" of oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. (Err on the medium side of medium-high.) Test to make sure the oil is hot enough for frying by dropping a small piece of tortilla into the oil. If the oil bubbles immediately and the tortilla rises up to the top, the oil is the right temperature. (If the oil is too cold, you'll end up with a soggy, greasy mess. A la my tacquito situation.)

Gently place the rolled-up tortillas into the oil, seam-side down. Fry for about 2 minutes on each side until the tortillas are crisp and golden.

Set tortillas on a paper-towel lined plate to sop up any extra oil. Serve with salsa and sour cream.

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos

After a summer hiatus, this week marked the return of dinner co-op with my friend and co-worker, Therese. She made her world-famous chili, and I made Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos. I've mentioned dinner co-op before, but I'll explain it again for those of you who may be new to HDHH.

Therese and I both have households of two. On Mondays, we cook dinner for four people, and we bring the leftovers to work on Tuesdays and switch them. I take home Therese's leftovers and she takes home mine. That means on Tuesday nights, both of our families get new-to-us dinners, but we only have to cook once! It's really a genius situation.

When I was whipping up these make-ahead-friendly Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos, I noticed something: They are not photogenic. In fact, when the husband came nosing around the kitchen to see what the delicious smells were all about, I shielded my culinary endeavors from him and hollered, "Don't look! Don't look!" See, the husband has been known to turn up his nose at foods that look funny, even if it's just during the prep stages.

If I wasn't going to let the husband watch me cook the burritos, I certainly wasn't going to take pictures for this post. I figured I'd just take photos when they were on the plate and finished. I had high hopes of a salsa and sour cream garnish that would knock your socks off. Maybe even a sprinkling of cilantro.

Yeah, so I forgot about all that. I was too hungry, and we just dug in. But trust me that these burritos are delicious. Even the husband said, "These are really good. Especially for vegetarian food!"

Now I know you're all going to make them tonight.

Oh, and because I couldn't stand to leave you without one of my photographic masterpieces (I sense a note of sarcasm...), here's a picture of the leftover burritos in my fridge. They're gonna be good again tonight!

P.S. Don't forget to enter our contest for a fantastic prize. Read more about it on Monday's post. Anyone who comments on a post from this week will be entered to win a Hot Dinner Happy Home apron in celebration of our first birthday! Comment away, folks!

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos
Adapted from An Occasion to Gather
Serves: 4-6

1 very large (or two small) sweet potato(s), peeled and cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 large onion, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 ounces diced green chiles (1/2 of a small can)
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons coriander
2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
4 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
8 flour tortillas
Salsa and sour cream, for serving

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place sweet potato in a saucepan with enough water to cover and a hearty pinch of salt. Bring water to boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and allow sweet potatoes to cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until   they're easily pierced with a fork. Drain sweet potatoes and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, and chiles and saute, stirring often, for 7 minutes. Stir in cumin and coriander and cook for another minute, until the spices are fragrant. Remove onion mixture from heat and set aside.

Combine sweet potatoes and black beans and mash them together with a potato masher or whatever mashing implement you prefer. (I like my burrito filling to have some texture, so I didn't mash it too much. Just use your best judgement.) Stir in onion mixture, cheese, and cilantro.

Evenly divide the filling between the tortillas. Roll burritos up tightly and place seam-side-down in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 5 minutes if you'd like to crisp up the tops a little bit.

Serve with salsa and sour cream.

? and Bean Burritos

If you're trying to use up leftovers, this is an excellent way to disguise them.  I have made these burritos with leftover chicken, beef, and pork.  In this case, I had leftover pork, so Pork 'N Bean Burritos.  The two cup measurement for the pork conveniently happens to be the amount I had left over, but these burritos will be just as good with more or less meat.  In fact, if you are a vegetarian or looking for a meatless meal, serve Bean Burritos.  Let me know what you replace the "?" with...I'd love to hear your ideas!    

? and Bean Burritos
Serves: 4-6

1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 (15 ounce) can black beans
2 cups leftover pork loin roast, cut into 1/2" cubes or shredded
1 tablespoon Penzey's Chili 9000 (or if you aren't a devotee of Penzey's Spices, substitute 2 teaspoons chili powder and 1 teaspoon cumin)
1/3 cup water
Salt and pepper
Tortillas and toppings of your choice for serving (shredded cheese, salsa, sour cream...)

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat until shimmering.  Add onion and season with salt and pepper.  Saute onion until its softened and translucent, about 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add garlic and cook, stirring, until it's fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Turn the heat down to medium.  Add beans, pork, and spices.  Stir to combine.  Add water to the pan and stir, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan.  Turn the heat down to medium low and stir occasionally until heated through, about 3-4 minutes.

Serve with tortillas and your favorite burrito toppings.

**If you have leftover burrito filling, use it to make nachos!  Just put tortilla chips in an oven-safe dish, top with the burrito mixture, and finish with cheese.  Bake at 350 until the cheese is melted, about 10 minutes.