Black Bean Butternut Squash Soup

As fall starts to really settle in here in Ohio, I like to do my best to welcome him for (hopefully) the next few months before old man winter blows through. Yes, a few days ago we had a blizzard, but old man winter was simply confused - he retreated peacefully right back to where he came from.

As I drove to work and saw inches of snow piling up, I felt so panicked! I hadn't visited a pumpkin patch, carved said pumpkins, gone apple picking, taken pictures of a tree with 19 different colors of leaves on it, attempted my first fall soup, enjoyed s'mores around a bonfire, gotten lost in a corn maze, indulged in gluten free pumpkin bread, or jumped in a huge pile of leaves that took me hours to rake. What have I been doing the past month?!

So today, I decided to get going on that list of my favorite fall things. As most of you probably guessed, I started with something that involved food. That's right, today was cook a fall soup day.



This soup is exactly what I needed to properly kick of my fall festivities - healthy, hearty, semi-thick, and a little sweet. I was trying out a few techniques with this recipe, like mastering the art of cooking beans from their dried state...much cheaper if you like a lot of beans in your life. I kinda love beans, so I am excited to have my first dried-to-cooked bean experience under my belt.

Please excuse the guesstimates on my ingredients, I normally don't measure vegetables because I love vegetables...I like to trust my tastebuds when it comes to spices. Basically I wing every soup I make.

Gather these things:

- 1 lb of dried black beans (or about 3.5 cans of cooked beans)
- 1 medium butternut squash (feel free to use kabocha or sweet potatoes)
- 2 large white onions, chopped
- 3 celery stalks, chopped
- 2 large carrots, chopped
- 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1/2 bottle of a drinkable white wine
- 4 cups of chicken broth (depending on how brothy you like your soup, I prefer thicker soups)
- 2 T coconut oil (or oil of your choice)
- 3 lbs of chicken
- cumin, salt, pepper, mustard powder, and paprika
- 1-2 T tomato paste

Directions:

- If using dried beans, soak them overnight in cold water. Fill the water until it is about an inch or 2 above the beans.
- The next day, dump the water and add new water (about double the amount of beans) and boil the beans for about 1.5 - 2 hours (until at the tenderness level you like). Always keep the water level above the beans, add if water level drops below the beans.
- Once you are ready to start cooking, dump the bean water out. In a blender, put 2 cups of chicken broth (or water with chicken broth flavoring), and 1 cup of the beans. Blend together until pureed. Put aside for later.
- Wash butternut squash and put in microwave for 15 minutes. I normally put mine in a plastic bag so it steams itself, but I feel like there is a lot of talk about how this could be bad for you...so the plastic bag isn't needed.
- Cube the chicken, add salt and pepper. In a large soup pot, turn burner on low to medium heat and add 1 T of coconut oil. When it is hot, add the minced garlic. Let it go for a few minutes, you want it to keep it's light color, not turn brown. Add the chicken after about 2-3 minutes.
- When chicken browned on all sides, remove chicken/garlic mix from pot and set aside.
- To the same pot, add 1 T of coconut oil and turn burner to medium heat. When oil is hot, add in onions, celery, and carrots.
- Add (about) 1 T of cumin, 1/2 T of salt, 1 t of pepper, 1/2 T of mustard powder, 1/2 T of paprika, and 2 T of tomato paste to your veggies. Let the veggies cook with the spices until they are translucent.
- Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot; chicken, bean/broth mixture from the blender, whole beans, wine, and the rest of the chicken broth.
- Let the mixture simmer for an hour or so - until it is at the thickness you like. I let mine go for almost 2 hours, until it was stew consistency
- Eat!!

Only a few pictures from my efforts today, I was trying my best to multitask :).

I wouldn't recommend leaving the skin on the butternut squash for it's role in this soup, but I definitely don't let it go to waste.

Butternut squash, post seed removal. 

I like to peel my squash after it cooks in the microwave, and then season it and bake it!! Nothing going to waste here! I chose garlic, chili powder, and salt as the seasoning this time. Sometimes I go a sweeter route and do a stevia and cinnamon blend. Tastes like fall for sure.

Once they come out, they are a crispy, crunchy delight! I offered it to Mike and told him it was like garlic bread. He quickly informed me that it was delicious, but not quite up to my introduction as garlic bread.

And there it is, the end product! So meaty, so beany, so full of sweetness from the squash! And the half bottle of white wine definitely didn't hurt the flavor of the broth. Oh, and the other half of the bottle of wine makes great company while cooking, just in case you were curious as to what to do with it.

Assuming you split this into 15 servings, here are the nutrition facts. A super satisfying meal with just as many grams of carbs as there are grams of protein. Win!

Recipe name

Black Bean Butternut Squash Soup

Number of servings

Serves 15.0 people

Ingredients	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sugar
Squash - Butternut, cooked, baked, without salt, 3 cup, cubes	246	65	1	6	12
Kirkland Signature - Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts, Frozen, 48 oz	1,440	0	18	312	0
Great Value - Black Beans (Dried), 1 container (3 3/10 cup dries ea.)	1,300	286	7	91	13
Vegetables - Carrots, Large, Raw, 2 carrot	60	14	0	2	10
Celery - Raw, 3 stalk, medium (7-1/2" - 8" long)	17	4	0	1	2
Generic - Diced White Onion, 2 cup	132	30	2	4	14
Generic - Wine, White, Dry, Sauvignon Blanc 150ml, 375 ml	366	9	0	0	6
Garlic - Raw, 5 clove	22	5	0	1	0
Total:	3,583	413	28	417	57
Per Serving:	239	28	2	28	4