Roasted Tomato and Bean Soup

Just a little while ago, I wrote about how I never just whip up a meal without using a recipe. Writing about it got me thinking about it more and more. I decided to jump in and give it a try. I had some ground chuck defrosting in the refrigerator that I had intended to use in Hamburger Helper. Well, I just wasn't in the mood for Hamburger Helper.

As the weather's been getting colder, more and more Food bloggers are writing about chili and soups. I've come across so many lately that I can't keep them straight. I do remember one chili recipe that used spaghetti sauce as a base. I thought that was a neat idea, and I just happened to have a half jar of sauce lurking in the back of my fridge begging to be used before it got fuzzy.

Half a jar of pasta sauce and a pound of ground beef wasn't going to qualify as an "original recipe", so I scrounged around a bit more. I found a can of black beans and a can of fire roasted tomatoes in the pantry. I really wasn't in the mood for the chunky-ness of chili though. Then I remembered seeing a recipe for bean soup where the beans were pureed. I thought, why not puree the tomatoes too.

The pureed mix was very thick. That half jar of pasta sauce wasn't going to thin the soup out nearly enough. The only broth I had was rock solid in the freezer. I wasn't in the mood to fuss with defrosing it, and I didn't want to add water. I thought the water might dilute the flavors too much. I looked in the pantry again with no luck. After moving things around in the fridge I came across a bottle of Corona. I add beer to chili all the time. Why not add it to this soup?

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Roasted Tomato Bean Soup
2 T olive oil
1/4 soft ball size onion, minced
2 cloves garlic minced
1 lb ground beef
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
1/2 jar spaghetti sauce
1 carrot, shredded on microplane
4 carrots, diced
1 c frozen corn
2 T chili powder
2 tsp cumin
1 beer (I used Corona)
1 c uncooked pasta noodles (I used alphabet)

In a skillet saute garlic and onions in olive oil until onions are light brown and caramelized. Place onions in your slow cooker. In the same skillet, brown and drain the ground beef. Add the meat to the crock-pot. Meanwhile, puree rinsed beans and tomatoes until smooth. Pour mixture into crockpot. Add a small amount of water to the blender get all of the puree out. Add this to the crock pot as well. Add remaining ingredients to crock pot and cook for 4 hours on high so the soup can simmer and cook off the alcohol. (I could have easily done this in a stockpot on the stove, but we were going to be gone until just before dinner and I didn't want to have to rush around when we got home. ) Boil your noodles per the instructions on the box. Drain and add to the soup in the crock pot.

This made a fair amount of soup and I froze the leftovers. I made this a while ago and we have since eaten the leftovers. They reheated very nicely. We have eaten this soup with one or more of the following add-ins: crackers, sour cream, cheese and crushed tortilla chips. (Of course Mrblocko added the standard hot sauce.)

The soup was not seasoned enough to our tastes. Next time I'll add more cumin and chili powder. Oh, and pepper. I realized that I completely forgot to add pepper. This problem was easily solved by just adding more spices to our individual bowls.

Overall, I think my first attempt at "winging it" went pretty good. I don't think I'll do this sort of thing all the time, but it was nice to know that I could throw something together and not have it totally suck.