rivers_bend: (mood: woo hoo)
rivers_bend ([personal profile] rivers_bend) wrote2013-09-07 05:36 pm
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black bean and steak soup = heaven

One of the nurses at work came back from the canteen yesterday with soup, and I asked what kind it was, and she said, "Black Bean and Steak." I had never heard of such a thing before, but I instantly became obsessed.

I googled some recipes to get an idea of what people did with it, and I stopped at the grocery on the way home and got some steak and gave it a rub and put it in the fridge. Today I made the soup. It is so good I could cry. Two of my favorite things to eat are steak and black beans, and the combination is amazing.

Most of the recipes called for beef broth, but I used chicken because that is what I had, and then I deglazed the steak pan with some water and threw that in, and made sure all the steak juices went in, and a;sdlfjadls;sdsd.


I am a cook by eye person, but roughly this is how I did it.

I bought the steak that was least expensive but was still thick enough to slice after cooking. I think it might have been London Broil. It was $5.99/lb, and cost about $4.45, so less than a pound, but not a whole lot less. one of those packages that is meant to feed two, if one of you has less of an appetite. I used cumin and chili powder and paprika and some creole seasoning to rub it because that is what I had, and I put it in a ziploc bag in the fridge overnight.

two cans of black beans (the 15 oz kind) and probably about 1 can worth of chicken broth. I'm not a huge fan of biting into beans, so I did a little whizz with my hand blender after both cans went in, but you could totally do one can whole and one mushed if you prefer.

about a tablespoon of tomato paste, and whatever spices you'd use to flavor fajitas, to taste.

The chicken broth was home made so had good flavor from onions I used in the process, but you could also add some onion if you like more onion flavor.

I cooked the steaks to the rare side of medium rare on my grill pan then put them aside to rest. I then threw in one cheek of yellow bell pepper (so about a third of a pepper) cut into tiny dice, and poured over about a quarter cup of water to soften the pepper and deglaze the pan. Added that to the soup. after about ten minutes I cut up the steak into super thin slices about half the length of my little finger (I cut each steak in half length ways and then sliced the halves to get the right size). threw those into the soup, and cooked it on low for about ten more minutes while I threw together some cornbread batter.

I let the soup hang out while I cooked the cornbread and then heated it up again just before I ate it. It did benefit from the melding time--I know because I tasted it before and after--but not enough that if you are more organized and get your cornbread shit together so it comes out of the oven when your soup is done you shouldn't just gobble it up.

I served it with a dollop of sour cream and some chopped avocado, but it is also tasty just as it is.

onthehill: cake! (cooking)

[personal profile] onthehill 2013-09-08 02:35 am (UTC)(link)
that looks and sounds amazing. And so simple which is a huge bonus for me.
ext_29986: (dean nom nom)

[identity profile] fannishliss.livejournal.com 2013-09-08 02:05 am (UTC)(link)
Nom!

Thanks for sharing your recipe. I am allergic to black beans but I bet pintos would be just as good, or possibly even kidneys. :)

We made Yorkshire Puddings for the first time, with a Ribeye Roast. Getting all that excellent juice from the steak made them so delicious!

[identity profile] rivers-bend.livejournal.com 2013-09-08 04:16 am (UTC)(link)
I bet pintos would also work. Black beans are the only kind I like, but it's a good rich soup with steak, so what could be wrong!

oh my goodness, Yorkshire Pudding is one of my favorite things in THE WHOLE WORLD. The juice definitely makes it :D

[identity profile] galwithglasses.livejournal.com 2013-09-08 02:05 am (UTC)(link)
That looks so good and I bet it smells awesome.

[identity profile] rivers-bend.livejournal.com 2013-09-08 04:17 am (UTC)(link)
It smells AMAZING. I was sorely tempted to just shove my whole face in the pot :D
wenchpixie: a picture of an old wooden bridge in a wooded area disappearing off into soft bright morning mist (Stock Winter's bridge)

[personal profile] wenchpixie 2013-09-08 11:16 am (UTC)(link)
That looks AWESOME. Black beans are a bugger to get here, but I reckon it'd probably work with the same bean mix I use for fajitas...ooooh. SOUP WEATHER IS MY FAVOURITE. ALSO STEAK.

Thank you for the recipe!

[identity profile] chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com 2013-09-08 03:27 pm (UTC)(link)
yum. sounds very Cuban or Brazilian.

[identity profile] tabularassa.livejournal.com 2013-09-15 02:41 am (UTC)(link)
Yum. Looks amazing.