Bean Soup

I used an AI‑powered search engine and put in it a list of what I had in the fridge, and it returned a recipe. Fortunately, I had already bought several aromatics—carrots, onions, and celery—which the AI refers to as the flavor base.

The recipe specified the order in which to cook the ingredients, along with a pound of pinto beans that I purchased at the store. The beans have been simmering on the stove for a while now. Meanwhile, the potatoes are diced and waiting, and I’ve sautéed the aromatics in olive oil in a skillet.

This is a fairly large project, and I calculated the total cooking time after soaking the beans this morning. Right now it’s late at night, and I’m waiting for the beans to finish cooking so I can combine the chicken stock, beans, aromatics, potatoes, and herbs. I also prepared some quinoa to add to the soup.

The soup should turn out fine, although it would benefit from extra umami—like the crimini mushrooms I bought. Unfortunately, I was too tired to sauté the mushrooms separately before adding them to the pot.

By the end of the process I’ll have roughly eight to ten cups of soup. Most of it will be transferred to airtight containers for freezing. I’m not sure how this will fit into my sleep schedule; I may wake up around midnight to portion and store the soup.