Black Bean Soup with Fresh Pumpkin

I had so much fun with this soup. I have made traditional black bean soup a few times but with Autumn arriving with force this year I was in the mood to do something pumpkin. I live in a fairly small town but am usually impressed with the produce and food selection at our local grocery store. I do have a Whole Foods that isn’t too far away (about 30 miles) but it was rainy and foggy, and there was no way I was driving over the mountain. That being said – my store had everything I wanted except dried black beans! They had every other kind of bean…but black. So I had to go with canned. Which I wasn’t very happy about. I have been experimenting lately with dried beans and was excited to try black. Oh well, next time.

Anyhow, I reluctantly opened my black beans and rinsed them really well, to get all the extra grime off of them. So the soup…

I sauteed my veggies, onion, orange pepper (because that’s what I had – green or red would be great here too for color) and celery in a little olive oil. I let them get a little brown on them once they were soft to add some flavor. Then I added the pumpkin and homemade stock. I also added my spices, cider, apple cider vinegar, and a little salt and pepper. I let is come to a boil then turned it down to simmer for about an hour. Then I scooped about 2 ladles full of soup into my immersion blender cup. (If you don’t have an immersion blender, I highly recommend it. I use mine ALL THE TIME!) I repeated the ladle step once more so the soup is a good blend of the pureed bean mixture and whole veggies and beans. Its made a great combo. Don’t forget to remove the bay leaves before pureeing.

I really hope you enjoy this as much as we did. Even the 4 year old cleaned her bowl!

Enjoy!

Local Ingredient: Pumpkin (bought from a local farm stand). 

Please comment below and let us know what you think!