Black Bean and Sweet Potato Soup with Irish Soda Bread Scones

I’m playing a bit of catch up, I wrote this and meant to post it the weekend before St. Paddy’s Day. Vacation photos coming soon…

Sunday, March 14: The other day I was browsing all my favorite food blogs and came across two recipes that I thought would make a perfect Sunday dinner. This soup is from Two Peas and Their Pod – the cooking couple, a great blog full of healthy recipes. I made the soup even healthier by adding kale and then counter balanced it with some Italian sausage (because that’s how I roll). And I found the Irish Soda Bread Scones at Wicked Good Dinner, another great food blog. In my mind, Irish Soda Bread is one of the best parts of St. Paddy’s Day, so I couldn’t pass these up. I kept it simple by leaving out the caraway seeds and used craisins since that’s what I had in my panty. The combination of the spicy soup and slightly sweet scones made one delicious dinner!

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Soup
adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

Ingredients:
1 T olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. Italian Sausage
1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1 roasted red pepper, chopped (you can use jarred)
Kale – a few leaves rinsed and chopped
2 cans low sodium vegetable broth (15 oz. size)
2 cups water
3 cans low sodium black beans, rinsed and drained (I realized at the last minute I didn’t have black beans, so I used kidney beans, which were great, but next time I will use black beans)
3 cans diced tomatoes with green chiles
1 T chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin
Dash of red pepper flakes
1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
1. In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil. Add in the onion and cook until tender. Add in the garlic and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the Italian sausage and cook for about 5 minutes.
2. Stir in the sweet potato and roasted red pepper. Cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add in the broth, water, black beans, kale and tomatoes. Stir well.
4. Add the chili powder, cumin, and red pepper flakes. Stir and toss in the cilantro. Stir again. Let the soup simmer on medium low for 30 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are soft.
5. Season with salt and pepper and serve hot.

Irish Soda Bread Scones
adapted from Wicked Good Dinner

Ingredients
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup organic raisins (I used craisins)
3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup organic cane sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
8 tablespoons cold butter
1 tablespoon toasted caraway seeds (I skipped this)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Salt (I used ½ tsp.)

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a medium bowl, soak the raisins in the vanilla and buttermilk for 15 minutes.
In a large bowl, whisk the together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Drain the raisins, saving the vanilla buttermilk. Stir in the caraway and raisins. Add the egg and buttermilk and mix with a spoon until just incorporated.

Place the dough on sheet pan lined with parchment paper that has been lightly floured and form dough into an 8” round loaf. Gently flatten the loaf with your hands until it’s about 3” high. Cut into 8 wedges and slightly separate each wedge on the baking sheet to allow room for expansion when baking.
Bake for 25 minutes or until light golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet.