Foodie Friday Spicy Bean And Chunky Vegetable Soup

Well we've had a serious blast of autumnal weather today haven't we. My mum had to go and see her surgeon today for a check up, and on our way we past several road closures and signs of this weeks flooding - not good. Having said that we also saw lots of beautiful leaves - the colours out there are amazing. Anyway on cold autumn and winter days there's nothing better than a nice warming bowl of soup, to fight off the chills, so yesterday I made a little soup concoction.

I originally got the idea for this recipe from a lovely food blogger who unfortunately stopped blogging, The original recipe was gorgeous but it required a little bit more thought and preparation because it used dried lentils which needed soaking. I wanted to make this recipe, quick and super easy to make, with only a few fresh (or not so fresh) vegetables, and whispers some tins! This is the recipe as I made it but I'll probably preach to the converted later and tell you how you can change it x

Spicy Bean and Chunky Vegetable Soup

1 tbs Olive Oil

1 tsp Cayenne Pepper

1 tsp Turmeric 

1 tsp Paprika

2 Cloves Garlic

1 Red Chili

1 Tin Chopped Tomatoes 

2 Cans Tinned Beans or Pulses (I used Black Eyed Beans and Butter Beans)

2 Large Onions (4 Small Onions ;)

4 Carrots

1 Red Pepper

1 Potato

1 Litre Vegetable Stock

Salt and Pepper 

1 Add the oil, the turmeric, the cayenne and the paprika to a large pan (I'm using a pressure cooker pan here)  Finely chop the chili and the garlic and add to the pan - heat gently till the oil and spices form a paste and the  garlic is starting to soften.

2. Peel and dice the carrots, the potato and the onion (I cheated I hate chopping onions so I did mine in the food processor! - it doesn't really matter as long as the potato and carrots are roughly the same size) Core and de seed the pepper and dice that too.

3. Add the veg to the pan and give it a good stir. Then cover the pan for about 5-10 minutes till the veg has started to soften

4. Open your cans and drain your beans - I usually give them a rinse with cold water too

5. Add your beans and your tinned tomatoes to the pan and give it another stir

6. Make up your stock - each one of my vegetable stock cubes made 500ml so I used two stock cubes to make the full litre. Add it to the pan - my vegetables weren't completely covered so I added another 200ml of boiling water.

7. Put the pan onto a simmer, and leave it until the soup has thickened slightly and your carrots and potatoes are cooked - it took about an hour and 15 minutes - I could have left it for longer it really doesn't matter.

8. Have a little taste, add salt and pepper or a bit more cayenne or paprika as need - serve with some warm bread and butter ;) or even a slice of healthy multigrain bread like Mummy Lou if your being good - This here is a yummy DS Dietary Specials Gluten Free Ciabatta Roll.

9. My and Mummy Lou had one bowlful last night, and it made enough for around another 3 portions each - 1 for the fridge and 2 for the freezer :)

OK that was probably the most simplest recipe ever and I don't even need to tell you how you could alter it but the gist is use whatever you have leeks, parsnip, turnip, dried pulses, lentils, chickpeas, tinned lentils anything really, and instead of the potato, you could use rice, noodles or pasta something to make it a bit thicker, and of course you could alter the stock, and add maybe bacon or chorizio if you eat meat.Obviously the spices and chilli's are personal things too - we like spicy food and whilst this wasn't head blowing it certainly warmed us both up. Unlike baking cooking isn't really an exact science experiment and have fun with your food and your cooking, if something doesn't work out the way you wanted to use mine and Mummy Lou's phrase "well it filled a hole" and try something different next time. Do you experiment in the kitchen ? and what's your favourite soup variety? let me know in the comments x