Bean & Tortilla Soup, Plus Miso-Maple-Jammed Sweet Potatoes

This post includes two delicious recipe "assignments" from the 

Cook the Book Fridays blogging group, where we work our way through 

Dorie Greenspan's "Everyday Dorie- The Way I Cook" book. 

Seriously, I am just loving this book. 

Whether tweaking an old standard that I know (hello hot fudge sundae...) or 

using ingredients I am not familiar with and had to hunt down - 

these recipes have been fabulous. 

Since I managed to mess up with two weeks we were posting this

 month I decided to just combine them into one post. 

I thought I would have a fair idea about the soup flavor but it still managed 

to surprise me with the heat it provides. The part of this recipe that was 

unusual for me was the stages or "add ins" that Dorie has us assembling our 

bowl of soup with. I typically expect to have all of the ingredients added to 

the pot, except garnishments, but we actually even add the beans of our 

choice to the soup bowl when we want to have a serving. 

Then you add the liquid portion you have created and transform that with the 

additions of Greek yogurt, more chopped onions and red pepper, cilantro if you 

wish (I didn't wish...) hunks of avocado and likely anything else that strikes you.  

Don't forget to drop in some tortilla chips. 

By assembling it this way the components stayed fresh. The flavorful base was 

was created by sweating chopped onions, red peppers, garlic and several 

spices. Then I added chicken broth. 

The final result was healthy, economical, incredibly filling and simply delicious. 

My husband and I have decided this will be on the short list for weeknight 

meals but I am already planning to make it when my friends come over ....

whenever we socialize again. 

The miso-maple-jammed sweet potatoes were an adventure for sure. 

Combining butter, miso, maple syrup, ponzu sauce and a splash of siracha leads

 to a whole lot of flavor. It was a very different flavor palate for us but we 

enjoyed the complexity, even if finding it hard to describe. 

It was also a great match for the sweet potatoes, which is why Dorie suggested it. 

Since I now have all of the ingredients to make this again I will not hesitate to 

do so and elevate those potatoes to a gourmet version very easily. 

This post follows my progress cooking each recipe 
from Dorie Greenspan's "Everyday Dorie" along with those participating 
in the online group www.CookTheBookFridays.Wordpress.com 

We do not publish recipes as policy but instead encourage folks 

to buy the book and join in the fun.