This soup is delicious! I love to make soup, and my husband always greets them with a bit of a groan. This soup put the biggest grin on his face for a very long time. His exact words were "this is so....wierd, but great!" I made this in a vegetarian version, with 3C vegetable broth, no ham, apple cider vinegar, cumin, bay leaf, and red pepper flakes. I served it with a spoon full of sour cream. It smelled like thanksgiving while it was cooking. excellent, and even better the next day!
I bought a larger can of pumpkin than I needed, so I was looking for a good recipe to use the remainder of the can. This was as easy as could be. Didn't have sherry vinegar so followed others suggestions and used apple cider vinegar. It was a little strong, so I'd bring that down to 2.5 T. I used a can diced tomatoes with green chiles for flavor and added the cumin and coriander suggested by others. I think I would puree only one can of the black beans and put in two cans whole, but that's personal preference, I like soup a little chunky. Skipped the ham (didn't want the additional sodium) and did add a dollop of fat free sour cream that I'd mixed with fresh chives first from baked potatoes the night before. It wasn't mentioned in the directions, but once all the ingredients are in the pot, bring to a boil and then reduce to a med/low simmer for the balance of the cooking time, rather than straight medium the entire time. Nice recipe, thanks for sharing!
This was excellent! The pumpkin is very subtle, but good. I added cider vinegar because I didn't have sherry vinegar and it was very good. I ate for lunch for two days in row after and it is very good as leftovers. Great for my low calorie high fiber diet.
Mmmmm...this soup was very tasty with a few alterations. I used home made black beans fresh tomatoes extra garlic & onion and added 1tsp cumin 1/4 tsp cayenne bay leaf and used apple cider vinegar instead of sherry. I didn't use all of the broth either; we like our soups thicker. Definitely a keeper!
The reviewer that mentioned the appearance of this soup was not kidding. It is not pretty. But is is a very hearty and inexpensive soup that served as a great work week lunch for me. I skipped the ham used vegetable broth and apple cider vinegar. I also used fresh beans. the pumpkin is VERY subtle. I would suggest reducing the amount of beans if you want to highlight the pumpkin more.
This is a decent base recipe but it needs a lot of help to become something good. I would recommend the Jamaican Black Bean Chili if you want a well rounded recipe to work with. (It is the only other recipe on this site that combines pumpkin and black beans.)
This was excellent the first day and even better as leftovers. The ham adds nothing. I think it would be fine without any meat at all; if I were to add meat again next time I would try some shredded beef.
As a vegetarian I am always on the look out for new recipes with beans, this one is fabulous and so cheap. I use dried beans, and if anyone is interested - a 1 pound bag of dry black beans yields 6 cups of cooked beans. A can of beans is roughly 2 cups, so a 1 pound bag is exactly what you need for this recipe. I cook the beans using the gas free method (http://www.recipezaar.com/Basic-Dried-Beans-49960) then use a little water when pureeing as they tend to be a little drier than the canned version. I also use vegetable broth and add 1/4 tsp cayenne and 1 tsp cumin. Delicious, thanks!
I enjoyed this recipe - I have to admit half way through it I started thinking to myself that this must be a joke. Pumpkin black beans and beef broth? Who would have thought? I didn't use the ham and I think that would have helped the overall flavor - I did add some green chiles to the black bean and tomato mixture. I will listen to some of the other reviewers and add some cumin and coriander next time. Thanks for the recipe.
