black bean soup with corn-avocado relish

Oh MY has it really been 3 months since I've updated? What a shame. I've been cooking, I swear! Just not posting.

At any rate, this soup is the easiest thing to make, and sooooo cheap (I call it "recession soup"), nutritious, and it's so delicious and hearty, but the corn relish still summers it up a bit. L-Ro asked me for the recipe, so L-Ro, this one's for you!

Black Bean Soup

ingredients:

2 or 3 cans black beans

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

2-3 cloves garlic, smashed and minced

1 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt

1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes (I used the fire-roasted ones)

2 cups water or broth

2-3 big handfuls of a big leafy green (chard, kale, etc), rinsed well, deveined, finely chopped

instructions:

heat olive oil in a large soup pot. add onions, garlic, and salt and sweat or sautee to your desired degree of doneness. seriously, you can't really mess this soup up. add beans, tomatoes, and liquid, and bring to a simmer. add the greens and bring back to a simmer, continue cooking until the greens have wilted. then use your immersion blender to puree to a smooth consistency (if you don't have an immersion blender you can use your food processor-- just do it in batches and make sure you cool it first).

Avocado-Corn Relish

ingredients:

1 cob corn

1 avocado

2-3 cloves raw garlic, microplaned or grated

1 generous handful of cilantro, including stems, finely chopped

green or red onions, finely minced

the juice and zest of 1 large lime (or 2 small ones)

generous pinch of sea salt

even more generous pinch of hot pepper flakes

2-3 glugs of olive oil

instructions:

roast the corn in the oven- spray or rub it with a little olive oil, loosely wrap it in foil, and put it in a 450-degree oven for 30ish minutes. you could also do this on the grill, mmmm. to trim off the cob, use a bundt pan or a small bowl inverted into a bigger bowl, and slice it off the cob in vertical strips. some of it will stay in neat little chunks and other kernels will separate.

Note: I find finely chopping herbs for relishes and pestos to be easiest with my Ulu, but if you don't have one you can just chop and drop as normal.

In a bowl, combine the corn, diced avocado, garlic, lime zest and juice, salt, pepper flakes, and cilantro. Fold in olive oil with a fork to desired consistency.

Serve at room temperature over hot black bean soup.

Bonus recipe alert!! Serve over eggs in toast for breakfast:

Double your recession savings! You're welcome.