Shortcut Black Bean Soup with Sausage

Admittedly, I haven't been cooking a lot lately.  Alex has been working irregular schedules - overnights for a week - till 2 one day - a 14 hour shift until 9 pm the next - and frankly it's just easier to work through leftovers and frozen food so that I can heat my dinner at 6 and he can heat his at whatever ungodly hour he gets home.

This routine does, however, make for pretty non-existent blogging.

And if I'm being honest, my newfound addiction to Pinterest has me browsing and pinning more recipes than I'm cooking....  Maybe I have to come up with some sort of rule: no more pinning recipes until I've tried five more new ones...

Then again, that doesn't sound very fun, so maybe not...

We finally got some winter weather here in Cincinnati, and I found myself craving some hot soup.  The additional benefit with soup is that it can be made earlier in the day and reheated when Alex gets home late.  So it seemed a happy compromise to make this month.

I decided to go back to the old-school method of finding a recipe and turned to my cookbooks, finally finding one to try in my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook: Bridal Edition.

Recipe:
2 15-ounce cans black beans (can also be made with 1 cup dry black beans but this adds a lot of time for cooking the beans prior to making the soup)
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
1 cup chopped onion (1 large onion)
1 cup chopped celery (2 stalks)
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced
8 ounces cooked turkey or chicken sausage

Optional Toppings: sour cream, shredded cheese, chopped fresh cilantro etc...

Rinse and drain two cans of black beans.  In a large sauce pan or Dutch oven combine beans, broth, water, onion, celery, coriander, salt, cayenne pepper, and garlic.   Bring to a boil.

Cover, reduce heat, and simmer about 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Stir in sausage, heat through.

Serve with optional toppings.  Makes 4-6 servings.

Verdict:
It was ok.  If I were to make it again, I would definitely make some modifications.  It could have used some carrots.  Which would mean cooking it slightly longer.  And possibly adding the celery a bit later because that was perfectly cooked, and I hate mushy celery.  I think 1 large onion is way too much.  Don't get me wrong, the onion tasted good.  Somewhat sweet.  But there was more onion than anything else.  Half an onion would do it for me.

Honestly, if it were made again for me, I would eat it.  But I don't think I would choose to make this again when there are so many other options (both old favorites and new possibilities).  All in all, kind of disappointing for the only new recipe I've made in a week.

I have something better for tomorrow.  Promise.