Cooking is one of my favorite hobbies, so I thought I’d start a weekly recipe column offering tips on cooking tasty, healthy food on a budget. Cooking is far from a female domain; men have been cooking for themselves and others since the taming of fire. From the field kitchen to the ship’s galley to the fanciest hotels and restaurants in the world, men have been preparing meals in all their infinite variations, contributing to culinary culture and driving the evolution of the gastronomic arts.

Today, I will introduce crockpot black bean soup, which is a tasty, nutritious and filling soup that can serve as the main course or a side dish. One little-known fact about black beans is that they are very rich in antioxidants, particularly the anti-inflammatory anthocyanins that have been found to inhibit tumor growth.

For equipment, you will need a crockpot (preferably an electric slow cooker, but a large cooking pot will do) and a skillet, rounded off with a spatula and ladle. Cooking time is ten hours.

Ingredients include:

  • One pound of dried black beans
  • One standard 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
  • A bulb of garlic
  • One large onion (I use sweets, such as Vidalia or Walla Walla)
  • One 4 oz can of diced jalapenos
  • A couple of smoked pork shanks/ham hocks, a pound of ham, or a 12 oz can of spam
  • Two tsp. ground cumin
  • One red bell pepper
  • Optional: roughly 3/4 cup sweet kernel corn (fresh or canned — fresh is better)

Preparation:

All you need to do before cooking is soak the beans overnight in cold water. Simply dump them in a large bowl (they will expand quite a bit) filled with water and leave them on the counter overnight.

Cooking:

When you wake up and are ready to start cooking, drain the beans through a sieve, discarding soaking water and giving them another rinse to be sure they are clean, then pour the beans into the slow cooker. Open the can of diced tomatoes and pour on top of the beans, then add two cups of water. Put the lid on the crockpot and turn it on, set to low. If you have a timer, choose ten hours. If you are cooking on a stovetop, simmer very slowly.

For the next five hours, you don’t have to do anything. Go for a walk in the park, a drive, a bike ride, or go to church — do whatever you want. Keep in mind that no matter what you do during this free time, you are still technically cooking and feeding your family, so do not forget to remind anyone of that if they attempt to shame you into some other chore.

At the five hour mark it’s time to prepare the other ingredients. Get a big, sharp knife and chop up the onion, then throw it into a bowl. Next, if you are using ham or spam, cut it into small cubes of less than a half inch in width. Throw on top of the onions. Finally, slice the bell pepper and chop the garlic, using two to six cloves — whatever your preference. Leave the garlic and bell pepper on the cutting board for now.

Now heat up your skillet with a couple tablespoons of olive oil (any cooking oil will do, but olive oil seems to go well with black beans). When it’s good and hot, toss on the onion and ham/spam. Cook until the pork is browned and the onions soft, then scrape the garlic and bell pepper slices into the skillet, and keep cooking until the bell pepper slices have softened to sweetness. Make sure you don’t burn the garlic — that tastes bad.

Remove the lid from your crockpot, then empty all of the contents of the skillet into the crockpot. Take a ladle and stir it around until it is mixed in. Now open the diced jalapeno can and empty its contents into the crockpot as well. At this point, the soup might need some more water, so add water to gain the consistency you want (shouldn’t take much). Finally, add a couple teaspoons of ground cumin, stir that in, and cover the crockpot.

Note: If you are using hamhocks or pork shanks, they should already be smoked, and there is no need to cook them in the skillet. Just place them in with the other ingredients as they are at the halfway point, and you can remove the bones and shred the meat when the soup is nearly finished.

For the next several hours, you will want to check the soup and stir it every so often. When it is nearly done, you should add the corn, stirring it in well. Taste the soup and salt to desired taste.

When the soup is done it should be fragrant and have a hearty, robust taste. The beans will have largely dissolved into an earthen-colored liquid, while the bell pepper slices, corn and jalapenos will continue to add some color to the soup.

Serve the soup with rice, thick-sliced French peasant bread or cornbread. Do not forget to save leftovers in sealed containers in the fridge or freezer. This soup freezes very well.

After your day’s labor, you will have a delicious, hearty, nutritious meal that can feed a full-sized family — all for about $10. The soup is packed with fiber, antioxidants, minerals and vitamins and has a good balance of fats, proteins and carbs, so you can eat until you are full and not worry about it.