A smooth and elegant vegetarian soup made from humble ingredients--black beans and broccoli stems--finished with sherry and egg yolks. Unpretentious? I'm not talking 'bout wine here . . .
If you want to be technical, I have had a teeny tiny smidgen of formal culinary training. When I lived in Richmond, Virginia I took a class at a local cookwares store. The class was taught by Nancy Maurelli and was all about Bean and Grain Cooking. That's where I first tasted this soup--
and I'm a packrat kept most of the class handout through seven moves. Key word--most.
The internet is an amazing thing. From that stapled class handout I'd removed the page with this recipe since I kept fixing it for my spouse during our early years together. I had the rest of the handout, which included Nancy Maurelli's name, so I started a quest to find Nancy and see if she still had the recipe. In 2008 that quest paid off (interestingly, through the Local Harvest website where you can find Community Supported Agriculture [CSA] farm shares and other local foods near you) and now that the recipe is back in my clutches, or at least the clutches of my Recipes email folder, I won't lose it again. This post is merely planned redundancy.
Since I've been reading about
Julie's experiments with Roasted Broccoli Stem Dip and
Meghan's experiences with Broccoli Stalk Pesto, I thought I'd share this soup. It tastes wonderful and presents so beautifully. The idea of garnish on a soup was awfully high falutin' to me at the time, and still is to be honest, but I do it anyway--it's easy and fun. I can't say that my kids love it--though they do eat a small bowl when we have it--but that's OK. Coupled with a mushroom appetizer such as my
Skillet Mushroom Dip for Two or
Soy Sriracha Roasted Mushrooms,
this makes for a lovely "just for adults" Valentine's meal at home. Add a steak and/or a salad if you like, though don't get too full for
Love!
If I suggested one of the desserts from my recipe index and intimated that we'd be eating it this year for Valentine's day I'd be lyin'--my spouse wants
Killer Brownies and I love him so that's what I'll get for dessert. Perhaps with some
Salted Caramel Ice Cream.
For more recipes using black beans, please see my
Beans (Legumes) Recipes Collection. For more recipes using Broccoli, please see my
Broccoli Recipes Collection. These collections are part of the
Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource or folks like me trying to use up every last stitch (does this metaphor work?) of produce from the farm share box. I'm sharing soup recipes
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