I made this soup recently for dinner. It's great for a cold night and is super easy to digest. If you can’t have gluten, omit the orzo or use an alternative, like rice.
Ingredients
1 tbsp organic/extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 stick celery, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 small sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1cm cubes
1 heaped tsp paprika
pinch sea salt
1 tin black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup / 250ml passata
1 litre vegetable stock
⅓ cup orzo or other small pasta or rice if gluten intolerant
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
dash chilli powder (optional)
fresh cracked black pepper
4 large stalks cavolo nero, leaves and stalks separated
½ lime, juiced
How to make black bean and orzo soup
Heat a large, heavy based pot. Add oil.
When oil is hot, add onion and celery. Cook for a few minutes until onion softens.
Add garlic and salt and continue to cook for another minute or two.
Cut the cavolo nero stalks into small pieces and add to the onion mixture.
Stir in the paprika and then add the sweet potato and black beans.
Add the passata, vegetable stock, thyme, chilli powder and black pepper.
Bring to the boil, add the orzo and then reduce heat to simmer. Cover and allow to cook until vegetables are tender and orzo has cooked. (I left mine on very low heat for 1 hour.)
Add the chopped cavolo nero leaves and stir through to wilt, then add the lime juice.
Serve and enjoy!
What is cavolo nero?
Cavolo (or cavalo) nero is an Italian kale. Transalated, cavolo nero means black cabbage. This is because it has very dark green leaves. It is also known as Tuscan Black or Tuscan Kale. It grows well during the colder months of the year and can be found at farmers markets over winter.
What is orzo?
Orzo is a type of pasta that is rice-shaped, although it is not rice. In some supermarkets, you may find it labelled as 'risoni'. There's many ways to use this little pasta and I've added it to this soup for a bit of body. You could also use ozro in your minestrone soup too.
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