Classic black bean soup

Guess what's inside? :)

Black bean soup! Yumz!

I'm a firm believer of the goodness of soups and hence after the trip I felt that it was important that we should get a dose of nourishing soup! Working with nothing much in the fridge, I decided to make a hearty soup with the black beans that fascinate Alicia so much during the Montessori activities (see Fun with Beans and Sorting Beans). I call this the classic black bean soup because you can actually add some chinese herbs to make it a herbal black bean soup. I've got one such recipe on my blog but the focus of the soup isn't really black beans though. :) It's just one of the ingredients. I will share with you another herbal version of black bean soup some other day...

Black beans contain:

"vitamin K, vitamin C, manganese, vitamin A, dietary fiber, potassium, folate, iron, magnesium, thiamin, riboflavin, copper, calcium, phosphorus, protein, omega-3 fatty acids and niacin. Black beans are also a very rich source of fiber, these nutrients play important role to prevent cholesterol from becoming oxidized and heart disease. When people talk about black bean, it is a unique type of bean because of the color coat on the black bean and it make them different from other beans, the color coat of black bean contain at least 8 different flavonoids that have enormous antioxidant potential that can be used to prevent degenerative diseases. Black bean like other types of beans contain a lot of protein contents and fiber, each cup has about 15 grams of both protein and fiber." (Source: Article Doctor)

For more info about black beans, click here.

Classic black bean soup

*Skip the dried cuttlefish for tots below 18mths*

Ingredients:

• about 1 cup black beans
• 200g pork ribs
• 3 chicken breast bones
• 1 dried cuttlefish
• 1 handful red dates (pitted)
• 1L water
• salt to taste (optional)

Method:

1. Blanch the pork ribs and chicken bones.
2. Rinse the black beans, red dates and dried cuttlefish.
3. Place all the ingredients into a slow cooker and slow-cook on LOW for 6-8hours.
4. Sieve out the chicken bones, dried cuttlefish and red dates, leaving only the pork ribs and some black beans.
5. Filter the oil using oil-filter paper.
6. Add salt to taste if necessary (the soup's got a natural sweetness already).

If cooking the soup on the stove, you may want to boil the black beans for 2min then let it sit for an hour in the water prior to cooking. You would also have to add more water (about 2-3L) if boiling the soup on the stove as you would have to let it simmer for at least 2hours.

Alicia enjoyed drinking the soup and eating the black beans. She was actually eating her lunch but she insisted on having some soup and black beans from the slowcooker as part of her lunch that day... and she had it again for dinner. :)