• 1 tablespoon ghee (make
  it or buy it) or vegetable oil
• 1 generous pinch asafetida
• 1/4 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
• 2 potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper or other chilli powder (optional) (NOTE: this is not the Mexican spice blend called chili powder, but simply dried hot peppers ground to a powder)
• 4 cups water

• Have everything ready before beginning to cook.
• Heat the oil in a heavy pot over medium flame until it almost smokes. Put in the asafetida and the cumin. Stir once. Cumin seeds will begin to sizzle in a few seconds.
• When cumin seeds sizzle, add potatoes, tomato paste, turmeric, salt, and optional cayenne.
• Stir and continue to fry for 2 minutes.
• Add water and bring to a boil.
• Cover, lower heat, and simmer gently for 45 minutes.
• Remove from heat and coarsely mash potatoes into the rest of the soup with a potato masher or a slotted spoon.
• Serve in small bowls. Is also good over a little bit of rice.

I created this recipe after having the black bean and pepper cheese soup at Bridgetown Grill. Mine’s not as spicy, though you can add as many jalapenos as you like to up the spiciness. We generally eat this with a loaf of crusty bread from the farmer’s market, and a green salad.

• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, peeled & coarsely chopped
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded & finely diced
• 2 15 oz cans black beans
• 2 15 oz cans great northern beans
• 1 15 oz can sweet golden corn
• 1 can vegetable broth
• 2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• green onion, chopped for garnish

• In a large heavy bottomed soup pot, sauté the onions, garlic, and jalapeño in a bit of vegetable oil until very soft.
• Purée the cooked mixture in a blender with some of the veggie broth added in to facilitate blending. Return puréed mixture to soup pot.
• Purée each can of beans and corn one at a time. Do not drain the beans and corn. Add veggie broth to the blender if extra liquid is needed. Add the puréed beans and corn to the soup pot.
• Heat the soup through. When the soup is hot stir in the cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted and blended in with the soup.
• Garnish individual bowls of soup with chopped green onions.
• To make this soup extra snazzy for entertaining, heat the black bean purée separately while preparing the rest of the soup as above. You’ll have a “black” mixture and a “white” mixture. Fill each serving bowl 2/3 full with the white mixture. Carefully spoon several spoonfuls of the black mixture into the center of each bowl. You’ll fill the bowl while creating a black spot in the center of the bowl. Garnish with green onions.

• 1 package ramen noodles (discard the “flavor pouch”)
• 2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon tamari (could also use soy sauce)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons (rounded or heaping) brown miso (soy or rice miso is fine as long as it’s brown. I just don’t think the white kind tastes as good.)
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

• Put the water in a pot. Add the tamari and minced garlic. Bring to a boil.
• Put the ramen noodles in the water. Boil for 3 minutes. Remove pot from heat.
• Put miso in the bottom of a small bowl. Ladle some of the hot liquid from the pot into the bowl. Mush the miso and water together until it makes a thinnish-sludge. Add this back to the pot.
• Add the nutritional yeast to the pot. Stir together well.
• Serve in a big homey bowl and enjoy. Pick the noodles out with a fork and slurp the broth from the side of the bowl. Yummm…