Souper Summer ~ A Recipe

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Soup ~ It's not just for cold weather. I serve it all year long.

I love soup. Ham soup. Potato Soup. Mexican Chicken Soup. Chicken & Black Bean Soup.
The first time I made soup I made a Ham Bone Soup. When our family sat around the table eating bowls of soup that I made from scratch, I felt like a real GROWN-UP woman. A woman like my mother. Mother always made the best suppers. Growing up we didn't call the evening meal dinner. We called it supper. When Mother made Ham Bone Soup for supper, she always made cornbread to crumble in it. So that's what I do when I make Ham Bone Soup.


Mother never made Black Bean Soup. But I do. And this is it. Serve it with tortilla chips. Make it and you'll feel like a real GROWN-UP woman. This is another easy-peasy quickie, unlike the ham bone soup. But still, pretty souperb!

Chicken & Black Bean Soup

from Southern Living, April 2005

1 small onion
1/2 green bell pepper
1 tsp. hot oil
4 cups chicken broth
1 (16 oz. ) jar spicy black bean dip
2 (16 oz. ) cans black beans
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
Toppings: sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese, diced tomatoes, avocado slices
Serve with tortilla chips.

Dice onion and bell pepper; saute in oil in Dutch oven. Whisk in chicken broth and bean dip until smooth. Bring to a boil and stir in black beans (rinsed & drained). Add the chicken and cook until heated through. Serve each bowl with your favorite toppings.

Now this is how I do that recipe. First of all, I don't measure. I saute as much onion as I feel like dicing. I don't have the patience for fine dicing, so I just chip it up and call it "rustic cooking." (And I don't want to wash the food processor!)


I use Newman's Own Black Bean & Corn salsa b/c that is the only "black bean dip" I find at Publix.
I boil chicken that has the bone and the skin because it is more flavorsome than skinless/boneless and then I use the broth from that. You can see my broth in the picture above. See how rich it is? I boiled extra chicken and froze the remainder of the broth for future use. Since the bean dip has a bit of corn, sometimes I add a little more corn. Sometimes I don't have enough black beans so I use pinto beans or kidney beans. Also I serve the soup over yellow rice or brown rice. The only topping I put on mine is some chipped up raw onion.

*Convenience factors: Of course, you can use a rotisserie chicken and canned broth. Or if you are boiling boneless/skinless chicken breast add a bouillon cube to the water to make broth. Or try Better Than Bouillon chicken base. It comes in a small jar and should be on the same aisle as the canned chicken broth or bouillon cubes.

What kind of soup do you make? Do you enjoy soup in the summer?