Joanie’s Pumpkin Black Bean Soup

Last month I had a group of vegan friends over for a salad potluck. Everyone was to bring a favorite salad to share. The day before our gathering my friend Joanie sent a message asking if she could bring a pot of soup instead – of course I said yes. She showed up with this amazing Pumpkin Black Bean Soup that was to die for. It was such a nice addition to our salad buffet –  I think we all went back for seconds and ate every last bit of soup. Of course we all requested the recipe and I have been making it on a regular basis for the past month. I almost feel guilty for not sharing the recipe with you sooner because, I know you are going to love it too. It uses simple pantry ingredients and takes only minutes to make in the Instant Pot pressure cooker. What’s not to love about that?

You have no idea how difficult it is to photograph black bean soup! It’s almost impossible to make it look good. Just know that it really does taste delicious. It is such a different flavor because of the unusual combination of allspice, cinnamon and black pepper. It all works perfectly well together with the canned pumpkin which adds fiber, creaminess and flavor.

I have me the nicest people since going plant based. I first met Joanie when she attended one of my whole food plant based cooking classes. She is so much fun to be around – love her positive attitude. She had a knee replacement since I had last seen her and she looked fabulous! While Joanie was cooperating from her surgery a friend brought her this soup and kindly shared the recipe. Thank you for passing it on and sharing this wonderful recipes with all of us Joanie.

I like to double this recipe – it fits nicely in the 8 qt Instant Pot. If you have the 6 qt you can double the recipe but hold out 2 cans of beans and add them after it has cooked. Garlic goes well with black bean soup and is really healthy so I add a few cloves of garlic to the recipes as well. With an immersion/stick blender you can blend the soup right in the Instant Pot. Love that.

For dessert I mad the simple but fabulous Fall Pudding and topped it with pomegranate seeds.

Joanie’s Pumpkin Black Bean Soup 

• 2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can Muir Glen fire roasted diced tomatoes – no salt added
• 1 can pumpkin – 15 ounce
• 1/2 onion chopped
• 4 small garlic cloves – or to taste
• 3/4 teaspoon allspice
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 4 cups low sodium vegetable broth

Garnish: Balsamic vinegar

Set Instant Pot to saute mode, using a small amount of the vegetable broth saute the onion and garlic for 2-3 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients, give it a stir. Put the lid on and set it on high pressure for 5 minutes. Allow natural pressure release. Using an immersion blender, blend to desired consistency. The first time I made this I was using my new immersion blender which is far more powerful than my old one and I over blended it! So then I added an extra can of beans to give it some more body. We liked that so well that I have continued to do that. After the soup is in the bowl drizzle your favorite balsamic vinegar over the top. If you have any of the California Balsamic flavored vinegars use one of your favorites. I like the Sweet Heat on this one. Yum!

Serving Suggestion: Serve with a big bowl of Chopped Salad on the side. We like to add brown rice or dice cooked potato in the bottom of the bowl before we ladle the soup on top. Then drizzle it with a plain or flavored balsamic vinegar.

Notes: A double batch of this recipe will fit nicely in the 8 qt Instant Pot. If you have the 6 qt Instant pot you can double the recipe but hold out 2 cans of beans and add them after it has cooked. We like to add an extra can of beans after blending just to give the soup a little more body.

Nutmeg Notes

How is  your holiday shopping going? I am almost done! I must admit that I have done most of it online. I just don’t have time to go shopping right now and so far I have found everything on line at good prices so why not let it just show up at my doorstep? We like to do a photo holiday card to send to friends and family who live far away and those were ready yesterday. Now I need to write my holiday letter to go with them and that chore will soon be crossed off my list. This year I am keeping it simple – doing just the things I really want to do and not overextending myself.

Hubby Tom and I have had the most epic cold – nicely shared with us by our little SweetPea and her siblings! Yes even the baby twins caught it and we have all been sneezing and sniffling since Thanksgiving. It has delayed our getting the house ready for Christmas but I think that is actually going to happen this afternoon. Hubby Tom pulled everything out of the attic this morning. Here in California we don’t have basements so our biggest storage area is the attic. Now that this post is finished I am going to start decorating the house and the Christmas tree.

Happy Holidays,

Tami

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