Black bean soup

I am definitely getting into the fire roasting thing! We recently had a fabulous meal of black bean soup with a side of roasted potatoes & artichokes. Recipes follow. Since I was cooking so much, I also decided to use up a batch of organic strawberries I had bought for Ro to make him strawberry jam. He loves eating a slice of bread with jam when he comes home and I feel good knowing exactly what went into his sugary spread.

Roasted potatoes: Nothing is easier than this! Peel & dice potatoes. We used 5 smallish totoes. Quarter 5-6 artichoke hearts (I used the canned ones) and shake out excess fluid. Toss with totoes and with EVOO (1 tsp), S&P. Stick in oven, 400 F for 1 hour, loosening them at the half hour mark. When done, we garnished with curly parsely and chives from the garden. Done!

Black bean soup: Once we stuck the potatoes in the oven, MrM went to feed Ro and I decided to make soup. I followed a recipe so loosely that I would rather write my own.

Chop half a yellow onion and stick in your soup pot to brown. Meanwhile:
Fire-roast 1 bell pepper. Seed & chop into 1" pieces.
Fire roast 2 jalapenos. Chop into 1/2" pieces.
Fire roast 1 huge pearl of garlic, crush & add to onions.
Add all the fire-roasted stuff to the onions and leave them there till onions are brown.
Add 1 can black beans, 1 large diced tomato, 1 can water (measure with bean can), handful (about 2/3 cup) heads of button mushrooms, 5 halved red radishes (as against daikon, which you don't want 5 of), 2 small carrots (chopped into 1" cylinders). Add a pinch of mexican oregano, bit of freshly ground black pepper and 1 tsp of salt (rest at the end) and cook for 10 minutes or till veggies are as tender as you want them.
Add rest of salt & top with finely chopped chives.

The recipe I was looking at had called for cumin. I would have loved to add it but forgot. Also, the recipe used chipotle peppers and I didn't have any, so I decided to use fire-roasted jalapenoes instead. It turned out delicious!

Ro's strawberry jam: I made it true to recipe with 250 gms of berries. It is definitely sweet and you could make do with 3/4 of the recommended amount of sugar. But remember: I like things mildly sweet and MrM always adds 2 tsps of sugar to anything I serve him that is "supposed to be sweet". :) So take my remarks with a pinch of salt. Or sugar. My learning: Gerber bottles do not make good jam containers. They popped open as soon as I turned them over. I had to scoop everything into a Bonne Maman jam bottle that I had prepared.