I got this recipe from Jenny Corry who got it from a friend of hers who specialized in vegan recipes. It is definitely one of our favorites, although there is always a debate whether to seed or not to seed the jalapeno.
Also, I've included a delicious black bean recipe. The soup is still good with canned beans, but what makes it great is using beans you cooked on your own.
Black Beans
1 lb. dried black beans, rinsed
I also add a bunch of spices, usually cumin, salt, pepper and anything else I feel like adding.
Another tip is to include about an inch of kombu seaweed. I know it sounds weird, but it helps with the digestibility of the beans. Same idea as the baking soda.
I cook these in a crock-pot for 6-8 hours. You could do the same with a large pot on the stove…cook on low-medium heat. Cook until the beans have soaked up all the water.
ingredients
1 recipe of Black Beans
2 small onions or 1 large onion, diced finely
1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced finely
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced (or not seeded depending on your spice preference)
1 carrot, peeled and diced finely
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar or sherry vinegar
for serving
lime wedges
chopped avocado
fresh cilantro
tortilla chips
Greek yogurt
Place black beans in very large stockpot.
Preheat a large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. Sauté the garlic in the oil until the garlic begins to sizzle, stir for 30 seconds, and add the onions and bell pepper. Stir and cook for 12 to 15 minutes, until the onions and peppers are very soft, then add the jalapeno, celery, and carrot. Cook for another 10 minutes, until the carrot has begun to soften, then remove from the heat.
Add the vegetables to your cooked beans in the large stockpot. Stir in any remaining oil, plus the cumin, oregano, thyme, and vegetable stock. Cover the pot, raise the heat to high and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium-low, partially cover the pot, and simmer for 35-40 minutes, until the carrots and celery are tender.
Remove from the heat, allow to cool 10 minutes, add the vinegar, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Like most soups, this soup will be richer and more flavorful the next day.
Garnish each serving of soup with chopped cilantro and chopped avocados. Serve with lime wedges.
Many people tend to think that all obese people have to do to solve their problems is eat less and move more. Alcoholics, on the other hand, need treatment.
But are the two disorders really all that different? Is it possible that eating in today’s sweet and salty fast-food world is actually somewhat, well, addictive? Could people with a predilection to abusing alcohol and drugs just as easily abuse food?
A study published in The Archives of General Psychiatry this week is not the first to examine the neurobiological similarities between behaviors that drive obesity and those that drive substance abuse. The researchers, from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, examined two large surveys of nationally representative samples of American adults questioned about alcoholism in their families. Each included about 40,000 adults; one survey was carried out in 1991 and 1992; the other was done a decade later, in 2001 and 2002.
The people surveyed were asked whether a relative had “been an alcoholic or problem drinker at any time in his/her life,” a question repeated for several types of relative — mother, father, brother, sister, half-sibling and children. Participants also reported their own weight and height, so body mass index could be calculated (B.M.I. is a calculation of weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared, and a result of 30 or more is considered obese).
The first survey, from the early 1990s, found no link between a family history of alcoholism and obesity. “There was an almost perfect overlap between the B.M.I. distribution of people without a family history of alcoholism and people with a family history of alcoholism,” said Richard A. Grucza, assistant professor of psychiatry at Washington University and lead author of the new paper.
Ten years later the survey told a different story. In 2001 and 2002, adults with a family history of alcoholism were 30 to 40 percent more likely to be obese than those with no alcoholism in the family. Women were at particularly high risk: they were almost 50 percent more likely to be obese if there was family alcoholism than if there wasn’t. (Men were 26 percent more likely to be obese.)
Why the change over time? Dr. Grucza says our so-called obesigenic, or obesity-inducing, food environment has changed in the decade between the two surveys. The most likely culprit, he said, “is the nature of the food we eat, and its tendency to appeal to the sorts of reward systems, which are the parts of the brain implicated in addiction.”
Certain foods — loaded with sugar, salt and fat and specially formulated to appeal to consumers — might be cues that trigger overeating in people with the predisposition for addiction, appealing to the primitive reward centers of the brain, and reinforcing the addictive behavior. These types of foods, which the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr. David Kessler has called “hyperpalatable,” may be more reinforcing of overeating than, say, green vegetables, Dr. Grucza said, and they’re more commonly and easily available than they were in the past.
In his book “The End of Overeating,” Dr. Kessler describes how these highly palatable foods — the kind served at fast-food and chain restaurants — change brain chemistry, triggering a neurological response that stimulates people to crave more food, even if they’re not hungry. The sense some people have that they cannot control their intake may in fact be true, he argues, because these rich, sweet and fatty foods stimulate the brain to release dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with the pleasure center. In the process, they rewire the brain, so that the dopamine pathways light up even at the thought of eating these foods.
Other explanations for the increased obesity among relatives of alcoholics are possible, however. For example, it may be that people from families with alcoholism are more susceptible to stress generally, or to suffer from underlying depression that leads them to drink or overeat.
No single gene is responsible for making someone obese or alcoholic, Dr. Grucza said. But people who eat or drink excessively may share critical characteristics like lack of impulse control and the inability to stop once they get started, a sort of “missing stop signal,” he said. Stress is also implicated in both behaviors.
“The notion of alcoholism being a disease can be oversimplified,” Dr. Grucza said. “At some point, it’s a behavior and a choice. It’s just that some people are more vulnerable to the effect of that choice than others. I think the same is probably true of overeating — some people just don’t have the predisposition to find certain kinds of food that pleasurable, or to eat that much.”
ingredients
1½ cup refried black beans
1 small butternut squash
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
soft corn tortillas
for serving
Salsa Verde
Cilantro sprigs
Creme fraiche or sour cream or I like to use greek yogurt
directions
Warm the refried beans gently over low heat. Cut the butternut squash into very small bite size piece, about 1/2 inch. Heat large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add olive oil or coconut oil. When it smokes, add squash cubes and toss well. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt, cinnamon, cumin and black pepper. Saute over high heat, tossing frequently, until tender but not mushy inside, about 10 minutes. To serve, heat tortillas quickly one by one in a very hot dry skillet, about 10 seconds per side. Assemble tacos by spooning in black beans, topping with sauteed squash, cilantro sprigs, and cream or yogurt.
