This is a very simple soup, and one that comes together very quickly and with few ingredients. There are really only two primary ingredients, outside of the liquids, and one secondary one. Grab some carrots, grab some parsnips, and get to peeling, chopping, and shredding. You want to wind up with about five or six cups, total, but the exact proportions won’t matter much in the end. I used a food processor for this. Along with the carrots and parsnips, you want to shred a hunk of ginger with the mix; how much you put in depends on how much “bite” you want, but I used about an inch-long piece.

Pretty, no? Very bright.

Put all that into a largish pot, along with two cups of broth. I’m experimenting at the moment (what else is new?), so I used a vegetarian bouillon with chicken flavoring. Mix it together and bring it to a boil before reducing the heat to a simmer; keep it there long enough to soften the vegetables. It shouldn’t take long – about thirty minutes – but my obviously mutant carrots refused to soften until I added in some extra salt. Take it off the heat and let it cool a touch, just enough so it doesn’t explode when you…

Make sure to make Tim Allen-style grunts as you blend the everliving heck out of the mixture. In retrospect, perhaps I should have done more grunting, because despite my blender’s best efforts, it wound up not being as smooth as I would have liked. Or maybe I just need a new blender…yeah, that’s the ticket!

Put it back in the pot after it’s nice and smooth, and stir in about half a cup of cream or evaporated milk – something thick, anyway. I used evaporated milk.

Warm it back up a bit, and season to taste. I used plain old salt and pepper, so the ginger could shine through.

Serve either warm or chilled. I initially went with chilled, but since the texture isn’t perfect for my tastes, I think I prefer this particular batch warm. Next time, I’ll get it more smooth, because the taste of the chilled soup is phenomenal! Light, sweet, gentle – soul-soothing.

Serves 4. Per serving – Fat: 3.8g; Carbohydrates: 32.1g; Calories: 176.6; Protein: 4.9g.

Oh, beans. I love you.

Ah, cast iron Dutch oven. There is no better destination for those lovely beans – not when they’re destined to become that wonderful, wonderful dish that is a perfect bean soup.

I didn’t do a step-by-step pictorial this time, largely because, well, I forgot. But it’s okay, really! You don’t need pictures of chopped vegetables, and you really don’t need pictures of a Dutch oven sitting on a stove, covered and emitting luscious aromas for several hours. If a picture is worth a thousand words, those smells are tomes, and the only way to share them would be to have you come to my house or to share the recipe. I’d love to do the former, but here’s the latter!

This is the first real recipe from The Veganomicon that I’ve tried, and I’ve been eager to do it, just as soon as we cleared the fridge and freezer of our other soup leftovers. I finished the last of Eric’s Tomato and Red Bean Tortilla soup this afternoon, so I dived into this immediately!

Soak a pound of black beaks, six hours or (as I did) overnight. There are tricks to shorten that, but from what I’ve heard, using big amounts baking soda and creating plumes of green foam might be dramatic but will also cut away swaths of the good stuff you want from your beans. Don’t be tempted by expedience. Take those soaked beans, rinse them, and put them into the cast iron pot with about six cups of water, two bay leaves, and one pinch (just one!) of baking soda. Simmer for about an hour and a half, until they’re tender.

While that’s happening, chop up a couple onions, four cloves of garlic, and a bell pepper (the book called for green, but I had a yellow going spare, and I liked the idea of more color). I was still lovin’ on my cast iron Dutch oven, so I decided to continue the theme by getting out the large cast iron frying pan; into that, I put three tablespoons of olive oil. Cook the garlic until it pops, and then add the onion and pepper; cook them about 15 minutes, until they’re soft.

In the meantime, chop a celery stalk and a peeled carrot. The book also calls for a seeded jalapeno, but since I was out, I chopped and subbed in two serranos. When the onions and peppers are soft, go ahead and add these veggies to the skillet and cook another ten minutes or so, until the carrots start softening.

Check the beans! They should be soft at this point, so take out the bay leaves and throw in the veggies, four cups of vegetable broth, and some Mexican seasonings: half a tablespoon of cumin, two teaspoons of oregano, and a teaspoon of thyme. If you wanted, and the family doesn’t mind, you could definitely toss in some red pepper, too, but I was still holding out hope that Sam might enjoy this one, so I held back. Bring it to a boil, tip the lid of the Dutch oven, and reduce it to a simmer for another half-hour.

Take it off the heat, let it cool a bit, and then add a tablespoon of white wine vinegar, along with some salt and fresh ground black pepper. Try not to salivate everywhere. Veganomicon: 1, hunger: 0.

Serves 8. Per serving, as written – Fat: 5.3g; Carbohydrates: 41.7g; Calories:183.2; Protein: 14.3g.