Lenten Recipe: Roasted Navajo Soup

Ash Wednesday is around the corner. If you're looking for Lenten recipes, you'll find quite a few if you look to your right in the sidebar under Labels: Lenten / Meatless Recipes.

Here is a nice hardy soup I came up with sometime ago that is perfect as winter seems to hang on here in the north:

Roasted Navajo Soup

2 medium sweet potatoes
2 red, yellow, or green peppers
1 large onion
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. cumin
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 (15 oz.) can of tomatoes
1 Tbsp. canned chipotles in adobo sauce
1/2 c. chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
1 (15 oz.) can black beans, drained
6 cups vegetable broth
1 (4 oz) box of wild rice prepared an hour ahead of time (optional)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Spray a large baking sheet with oil.

Peel the sweet potatoes and cut into 1-inch cubes.

Stem and seed the peppers and cut into 1-inch pieces.

Cut the stem and root ends of the onion, peel, and slice into wedges.

In a toss the veggies with the garlic, oil, cumin, salt, and pepper.

Spread on the prepared baking sheet and roast in the oven for about 10 minutes. Stir well and continue to roast another 10 to 15 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are fork tender.

In a blender puree the tomatoes, chipotles, cilantro, roasted vegetables, and black beans. You may have to do this in batches.

In a soup pot, combine the puree with the broth and prepared wild rice (optional). Simmer for 15 minutes until warm throughout.

Optional: Serve with sour cream, plain yogurt, and or tortilla chips.

Variations: You could replace the wild rice with a white or brown rice. Or even skip the rice put the beans in whole instead of making them part of the puree.