Kicking Off Website Wednesday

On Monday I gave you the run down on my plans for a few new features for Kitchen Concoctions for the year 2012. One of them was changing the Magazine of the Month series to a (food) Website of the Month series. This will entail featuring a different food/recipe/meal planing website each month of the year 2012. I will be sharing that week’s selected recipe on Wednesdays for “Website Wednesday”.

A natural choice for my first website feature of course had to be meal planning/recipe site Food on the Table. Since I already know a lot about this website (since I do freelance work for them) and already develop and test a lot of their recipes this was a natural first choice.

I am still trying to narrow down the other recipe sites I would like to review. On the list so far: Tasty Kitchen, All Recipes, Recipes.com and a few more. If you have any recipe websites that are your favorites please share!

Anyways, today’s recipe is so tasty. A hearty black bean soup with sweet ham, bell peppers, smoky cumin and a bit of a spice from chili powder and jalapenos. And if you have any ham left in your freezer from Christmas this is the perfect soup to use it in, if not a small ham steak should suffice. Serve with a side of cornbread and you have a recipe that is a keeper!

Two Years Ago: Savory Biscotti
One Year Ago: Crispy Fish Tacos

Fast and Delicious Black Bean Soup
Printable Version
Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 30 minutes Serves: 4-6

2 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 orange bell pepper, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeds removed and minced
3 garlic clove, minced
2 (15.0 ounce can) black beans
1 (14.0 ounce can) chicken broth
2 cup cooked ham, cubed
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded, for serving
1 cup sour cream, for serving

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in the onion, bell peppers, jalapeno, and garlic, and cook 5 minutes, until tender. Mix in 1 can black beans and chicken broth.

In a blender, puree remaining can of beans until smooth. Mix into the pot. Bring soup to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Mix in ham, cumin, chili powder, salt, and pepper. Simmer 20 minutes. Garnish with desired amount of cheddar cheese and sour cream to serve.

adapted from Food on the Table

Disclosure: Again I am not being paid to do these reviews, I just frequent these sites a lot and wanted to feature some recipes I get from these sites and sort of compare the different features these websites have to offer.