Goth Panda

This soup was inspired by a soup that Mike’s sister Cass made for us when we visited her in Arkansas in December 2009. I think her inspiration was this Cooking Light recipe, but needless to say it has changed beyond all recognition from that one. I wanted to make it a pantry meal, the sort of thing where you just put everything into the pot and cook it, so I eliminated onion chopping and minced garlic in a jar in favor of dried spices. These changes turned it from low-fat to fat-free, but of course that is before you put the toppings on it. It tastes very good without any toppings, but if you give me the choice, I will always add them.

In addition to a can of pinto beans, I use Westbrae Organic Soup Beans in this soup, which contain Great Northern, red beans, lentils, and barley. But if you don’t have these, you can easily substitute another can of beans of whatever variety you like.

When the soup is done, you crush up some tortilla chips, and put them in the bowl, and then ladle the soup on top. So I guess the chips are not technically a “topping.”

The actual toppings would be cheddar and sour cream, or any other yummy thing that sounds good. Avocado? Hot sauce?

This recipe is adapted from one that I got off the internet so long ago I didn’t even make a note of where it came from. I tried to Google it and nothing came up.

This dish is fairly quick and definitely delicious, but it is not exactly low in calories. I comfort myself by saying that it is at least not as bad as the deep-fried, toasted ravioli recipes that are similar. Please feel free to use this excuse as well.

This soup is not very photogenic, but it is delicious, quick, and inexpensive. I combined a few different recipes to make it, since I have a very strict idea about what to put in pasta e fagioli: pasta. E fagioli. And then seasonings. Some of the recipes I saw added all different kinds of vegetables, and I have nothing against vegetables. I like lots of veggies in minestrone and other vegetable soups. But I think that pasta e fagioli should be as simple as possible. This also has the added bonus of making it a pantry meal.

One of the recipes I found while researching pasta e fagioli made it like a pasta dish. They cooked the pasta separately, and made the rest of the ingredients a tomato and bean sauce that was served on top the pasta. I thought that was an interesting take, but in the end I decided to stick with a soup presentation.

I left this soup on the stove for about 20 minutes and it got nice and thick, which is the way I wanted it. I cooked the pasta in the soup to make it thicker, but you could also cook the pasta separately and add it in at the end.

I was thinking the other day that the vegetarian sloppy joe mixture would make a good topping for rice. However, I already have a go-to recipe for Black Beans and Rice, which is kind of a quintessential vegetarian dish.

This recipe is based on one by Simply Recipes, which is a great basic recipe to jump off from. This is one of the quickest recipes to make on a weeknight, and it has the added bonuses of being both delicious and nutritious. I added broth and tomato paste to make a little more of a sauce; you could substitute an equal amount of tomato sauce, or even a 14-oz can of diced tomatoes instead.

I used a roasted red pepper instead of a raw one, as suggested. In fact, I made this dish because I had a roasted red pepper in my refrigerator and I needed a use for it. When my peppers get to the end of the “good to use raw” stage, I roast them and refrigerate them to extend their lifespan a little.

Don’t forget that I don’t like my dishes too spicy, so you can definitely up the chili powder and cayenne to suit. This should taste spicy to you in the pan, because the rice and toppings cut the spiciness of the bean mixture when you serve it.

I modified this recipe from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe, but I’ve changed it so much that it is not at all the same recipe. All of my modifications were in the direction of streamlining and simplifying, until there were only the basics that drew me to the recipe in the first place: pasta, garlic, tomatoes, and wine.

So this a very simple and quick recipe, although you could make it more complicated if you wanted to. Giada adds fresh parsley and goat cheese to this recipe. I am not likely to have fresh herbs for a weeknight dinner, and I don’t like goat cheese at all. But you could add any kind of italian herb blend, oregano, or basil, and parmesan would probably be great, too. But I usually just make it plain.

The most important thing to have is the best kind of sun dried tomatoes, which in my opinion are these:

These have been seen on this site before, in the most delicious focaccia and in the sundried tomato pesto spread. I have tried to make this recipe with another kind of sundried tomatoes, but it was not as good, and I think it is because the oil from these sundried tomatoes is the best. And since you use the sundried tomato oil in the sauce, it makes a big difference. If you can’t get these tomatoes, and the oil from the sundried tomatoes doesn’t seem like it will be awesome, I might just substitute a couple of tablespoons of good olive oil instead of using it.