Corn and Bean Soup

I love walking into my kitchen before cooking dinner and figuring out what I can make based on what's in the fridge. Last night everything just seemed to come together perfectly.

I had bought an extra bag of baby carrots because they were buy one get one free at the store and I had always planned to make a soup out of them. I also had some beef broth, corn, and black beans that needed to be eaten asap. I decided it was time for the first soup of autumn.

I don't measure things, I like to do it by taste. I started by combining a small bag of baby carrots, 3/4 of a carton of beef broth, a large can of tomato puree and 4 cups of water in a large pot. I added in some bourbon smoked paprika, pepper and oregano, covered the pot and let that cook for about 30 minutes.

While that was cooking I minced:
1/2 of an onion
1/2 a head of garlic
2 jalepenos
1 thai hot chili
1 green bell pepper
1 bunch of green onions

I also cut the corn off of 4 ears of corn.

I heated some oil in a pan and sauteed the minced ingredients. Then I added the corn, mixed them up, and turned off the heat while I did the next step.

Once the carrots were soft in the broth I used a slotted spoon to fish them out and put them in a blender. I blended them until smooth and added them back to the broth along with the black beans and onion/corn mixture. I simmered everything (the pot covered) until all the ingredients were hot. I didn't want to corn to become soggy so I didn't cook it very long.

I don't have a picture, but I can assure you it was very tasty, and absolutely perfect served with some corn tortilla chips and a dollop of sour cream.