Chipotle Lima Bean Soup

Chipotle Lima Bean Soup

This recipes is adapted from www.101cookbooks.com, one of my favorite food bloggers.  I like to add tomatoes and use a good stock to add more flavor.  This is a very light soup great for any season.

1 pound dried baby lima beans, picked over and rinsed
1 quart chicken or vegetable stock (you can use all water, but the stock improves the flavor)
6 cups water
1 head garlic, top lobbed off to expose the cloves and loose skins removed
2 tablespoons coconut oil (butter or olive oil work, as well)
1 onion, halved top to bottom and sliced into thin crescents
1 to 2 chipotles in adobo sauce (see note below recipe)
2 cans stewed tomatoes
2 teaspoons fine-grain sea salt
Squeeze of lime juice (optional)

Pick over the beans, looking carefully for any pebbles or dirt clumps; baby limas seem to be magnets for dirt. Rinse the beans, then combine them with the stock, if using, water and garlic in a heavy soup pot. You might think putting a whole head of unpeeled garlic in the pot is strange, but just go with it. Bring the beans to an active simmer and cook for 60 – 75 minutes, until just a touch al dente and not mushy or falling apart. Test their doneness by tasting; you really can't tell any other way.

Heat the oil (or butter) in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat, add the onion, chipotles, and 2 teaspoons of the adobo sauce, and sauté over medium high heat for 3 to 4 minutes, just until the onion starts to soften. Crush the tomatoes with your hands and add them, along with their juices, to the pan. Simmer for just another minute or two longer for the flavors to blend. You can always add more adobo sauce later for a spicier soup; just don't overdo it on the front end.

Add the salt and the onion-chipotle-tomato mix to the pot of beans and simmer gently for about 5 minutes. The broth should be thin, so add more water if needed. Add more salt and more adobo a bit at a time if the flavors aren't popping. Finish with a squeeze of lime if you like. You can remove the garlic or smash the cooked cloves into a paste and add it back into the soup (what I usually do).

Note: Chipotle peppers in adobo can be found in most grocery stores with the Mexican food. They are pretty spicy, so just remove 1-2 peppers and mince them up very finely so you do not have big chunks. You will not use the entire can for this or any other recipe. They will keep for a long time in the refrigerator.

Original recipe: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/baby-lima-soup-with-chipotle-broth-recipe.html