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Mexican Black Beans with Carrots


Soups are the staple to any low budget meal.  Currently, soups are the staples to any pandemic meals.  With a wide variety of legumes and rice on had, a Black Bean Soup with a side of Spanish Rice was attempted.

Modifications Made:
Lime juice replaced red wine vinegar, hot sauce was omitted, stock was two cups chicken broth and two cups pollo do tomate.

Scaled for Likeness: Good
Way back in college, in my last semester of Senior year I had a class taught by the Dean of my field  who was known for her very challenging yet stimulating class.  On the day before the final, a pop quiz was given.  The quiz will forever stand out in my memory.  It went something along the lines of this:

Name:
Date:
Instructions: blah, blah, blah, blah, read all the questions before starting the quiz, blah blah, blah.

The number of questions nor the content mattered.  What mattered was reading the instructions.  As in READING the instructions.  Cause had I, like so many other students, had read the instructions the quiz would have been over before it started.  The last question on the last page all by itself said to read all the questions, circle A for the answer, and an A will be received for the grade.  If the student had not read all the questions first and had answered them as they went, they received the grade they earned.  Luckily for me, I earned an A but I did not follow the instructions and had to endure the stress of not getting an A.  Lessons learned. 

And while I think of that lesson often, I still make the same mistake often.  Just like in this recipe.  It very clearly states "six cups of cooked black beans".  Had I followed the instructions and made the beans first and then cooked accordingly with the new ingredients, the recipe would have been great.  Instead, all the ingredients were cooked at the same time the dried black beans were cooked resulting in a soggy carrots and completely cooked down petitie diced tomatoes.  My final result was a thick mess only saved by the addition of rice, salsa, and chips.  Soup this was not, even if it was tasty.
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