New Recipe Week3

Tonight I was in the mood for soup. The day was beautiful and really pleasant, but the night was still pretty chilly. Additionally a good friend had knee replacement surgery and I knew I could take soup to her so she could easily warm it up whenever she felt like eating it. I looked through various sites for soup with pinto beans, since I had some soaking and this one kept coming up again and again. I decided to take what I thought would be the best of several recipes and mesh it into one. I had everything on hand (at least I thought I did) and decided why not, because I did not want to go back out to the store. Turns out I did not have everything, but I can usually punt pretty easily.

Mexican Drunken Bean Soup

1 lb bag of dried pinto beans, cooked
1 large onion, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic minced
2 jalapenos, ribbed and seeded then minced
1 large can diced tomatoes (2 regular cans) undrained
1 jar salsa verde
3-4 cups vegetable broth (chicken would be fine but I had veggie on hand)
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 lb cooked crispy bacon (I did not have any so I used smoked sausage though ham or cooked diced chicken would work equally well)
1 bottle Mexican beer (Dos Equis)
cilantro leaves and tortilla chips for garnish

Cook and season the pinto beans (until they are soft)
In a Dutch oven heat the olive oil and cook the onions until they are wilted but not brown, add the jalapenos and garlic and cook about 45 seconds, them pour the diced tomatoes and salsa verde in. Add the veggie broth and a decent shake of salt and pepper. I had no bacon so I used smoked sausage cut into coins and it worked perfectly fine. Add the beans and let it all hang out on a medium low heat for about 45 minutes. Add the beer and turn the heat to high. Bring to a rolling boil, then turn it down and cook for about 5 more minutes (The alcohol will burn off leaving that delicious yeasty flavor of the beer. If you don't have Dos Equis use any regular beer but stay away from those that are hops heavy) Serve with a few cilantro leaves and something crunchy like tortilla chips, crackers or use leftover Fritos like we did.

This soup was unbelievably delicious. I took 4 big servings to my friend, we had 4 people at our house for dinner, 2 of the 4 had seconds and there was enough left over for my lunch later in the week. 2 big thumbs up from everyone. This one is a keeper!

What I will do different next time? I will probably toss on a couple of shredded zucchini and possibly some shredded cabbage just for the vegetable content and add another jalapeno (cause we like heat) , but it was almost perfect as it was. If you don't like hot stuff use mild salsa verde and leave out the jalapenos. My mouth is watering again just typing this and remembering the taste.