Because you clearly cannot expect S to eat beans. In any form.
Anyway, the soup was very good. Definitely something I'll make again, mostly because it's perfectly freezeable, and so next time I want it, I can pull it out of my freezer and have a warm, pretty freaking nourishing/good for me meal.
I found the recipe in Real Simple food, and if this is the only recipe I make from it, it was well worth it. Here's the ingredients: 1 tsp olive oil, 1 pint (I used a 14 oz tub) fresh salsa, 1 can black beans, 1 can black refried beans, 1 can chicken stock. I tweaked, as always. First of all, I forgot to drain the beans, or rather, didn't realize I had to. So I ended up not using a whole can of chicken stock, because it seemed like way too much liquid. Also, I wasn't sure if 14 oz was a pint, but I figured that more tomatoes can't be bad, and I was right. I do think that with a higher quality fresh salsa (mine was from the regular grocery store; next time I want to make this, I'll do it with salsa from TJ's or WF. Also, I used low-fat/low-sodium chicken stock, to minimize the fat in the dish, and I also used fat-free black refried beans. I wish I could say that it was so I could cut the fat, but the truth is, that's all I could find in my grocery store. The whole dish took 25 minutes, from the moment I dumped the salsa in the oil to simmer for four minutes, to the end when I dished it into my bowl. (Basically, saute the salsa for four minutes. Add remaining ingredients, bring to a simmer and cook 5 more minutes. Not kidding.)
I'm sure there's any number of tweaks you could perform on this recipe. Fresh cilantro if you like it, spicier salsa if you like that. I personally can see adding more beans, as it seemed to be on the runny side. Also, I wish I had salted the pot a bit as it was cooking. I served myself the soup with a dollop of Lite sour cream, and some crappy store-bought guac. But this would be probably pretty delish with a garnish of fresh tomato or fresh avocado too. Also, if you had a really high quality guac--Mamacita's, say--it would be dynomite. But really, if you have a great fresh chunky salsa, you have most of the flavor you need.
Seriously, this is one meal that I didn't mind making after work. It was entirely pleasurable. I'm very happy, and I wish RS Food would cough up some more recipes like this.
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