Cuban Cure Black Bean Soup

This comforting and delicious soup was shown on Nigella Lawson’s Christmas Special (UK - BBC 2006). It’s not in any of her books, although I would have thought it’d have fitted right in with Nigella Express, but who am I to say what should go in and what shouldn’t.

Anyhow, I can remember Nigella making it in a darkish kitchen as a pick-me-up-and-feed-me after a night on the razzle dazzle! I thought at the time that it looked good, and have a thing for chorizo sausage generally, but it must have become lost and forgotten in the midst of the Christmas celebrations last year. Recently I saw my friend Lisa raving about how good it was and thought I really must make it. Particularly since I managed to find some black beans a little while ago.

It tastes like so much more than its ingredients, a really truly comforting soup, delicious with the sausage, slightly spicy with the cumin, and zingy with the lime and coriander (cilantro) – and then there’s the beans. Perhaps because black beans are new-ish to me, I discovered then 12 years ago, they seem so non-pedestrian and special. I even like the name black turtle beans, although for no particular food based reason, just that I am very fond of turtles (live turtles that is!).

I served this for lunch, and will be making this one again for sure. It’s also quite light, energising but not jading. Thanks Lisa for prompting me into making it, I’d have been missing a great fast soup! My little one ate this as well, which was an added surprise bonus! More Nigella Express next time.

Cuban Cure Black Bean Soup
By Nigella Lawson recipe from here.

150g/5oz chorizo cooking sausage

2 spring onions
½ tsp ground cumin

425g/15oz tin black beans, rinsed and drained

1 fresh tomato, roughly chopped

500ml/17fl oz chicken stock (from fresh or concentrate)

1 lime, juice only

2-4 tbsp chopped, fresh coriander

1. Slice the chorizo sausage into slices about the size of one-pound coins. Slice each of the chorizo discs in half.

2. Place the chorizo pieces into a large saucepan over a medium heat and cook over a medium heat for five minutes, or until they start to become crisp. Remove the chorizo with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.

3. Slice off the green parts of the spring onions and finely slice them. Set the green parts of the spring onions aside.

4. Finely slice the white part of the spring onions and add the pieces to the frying pan the chorizo was cooked in. Add the ground cumin to the pan, and cook over a gentle heat for two minutes, stirring the mixture.

5. Add the black beans, tomato and the chicken stock. Stir the mixture in the pan and simmer for ten minutes.

6. To serve, ladle the soup into two clean bowls. Add the chorizo pieces and the finely chopped green spring onion to the bowls. Add some lime juice, to taste, to each bowl and sprinkle the chopped coriander on top.