Fall food

Fall is finally here in the Dallas area.  At least, its feels like its here today so I'm going with it.  I love fall food.  To me, fall food equals pumpkin.  I like pumpkin coffee, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin pancakes, etc...  I am the Bubba Gump of pumpkin!

Today I cooked up a black bean and pumpkin soup.  It is delicious!  I had a soup like this, recently, in Maryland.  A group of beautiful ladies came in to the Children's Inn and made us families a hearty yummy fall inspired vegetarian dinner.  The soup was my favorite.  So, I found a recipe that sounded close & with just a few alterations, I whipped it right up.  I'm hoping it freezes well and I can serve some of it at Thanksgiving too.

Pumpkin & Black Bean Soup

 Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 chopped onion
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 cans (15 oz. each) black beans, rinsed and drained - I used about 1/2 a pot of black beans I cooked up last week
• 1 can (15 oz.) LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin - I went crazy & used one giant can of pumpkin puree
• 1 can (14.5 oz.) no-salt added diced tomatoes, undrained - I just chopped up 4 fresh Roma tomatoes
• 1/2 cup water - more or less.....
• 1/2 teaspoon salt or more to taste
• 1 package of Boca breakfast links, chopped

Directions

HEAT oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and garlic; cook, stirring occasionally, for 4 to 5 minutes or until soft. Stir in cumin and thyme; cook, stirring occasionally, for 1 minute. Add beans, pumpkin, tomatoes and juice, water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; cook for 10 minutes. Stir in salt.  Cook Boca sausages in microwave & then chop/dice into small pieces & add to the soup.

This recipe originally called for vegetable broth.  If you use canned beans, I would add vegetable broth.  I used part of a pot of black beans I cooked up last week.  Since I cooked the beans with celery, carrots, onion, garlic & seasonings, I just added the bean juice & went with it.

I think this would be fabulous with some grated Parmesan.