Two Weeks of Black Beans

So over the past two weeks, I've been studying and therefore unable to devote much time to cooking.  So what did I do?  I cooked up a bag of dried black beans and made them my staples.  I made refried black beans cooking them up with some coriander, oregano, and cumin and put those on quesadillas and rice cooked with cilantro (and topped with cheese and salsa) as my definition of comfort food.  I threw some beans in a can of tomatoes with cumin, garlic, red pepper and a frozen cilantro cube and put it over polenta.  But my most exciting recipe was an adaptation of Rachel Ray's pumpkin black bean soup (adapted because I forgot to buy onion and garlic and didn't want to buy cream because I wouldn't have any other use for it, since I haven't been cooking/baking).  Oh, and I made it waaaaaaaaay to salty, so I tried to cover it up with spiciness and a couple frozen cilantro cubes.

• 2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 3 cups canned or packaged vegetable stock, found on soup aisle
• 1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes in juice
• 2 cups cooked black beans
• 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree (found often on the bakingaisle)
• 1 tablespoon curry powder, 1 palm full
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin, 1/2 palm full
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, eyeball it in the palm of your hand
• Coarse salt
• Some combination of oregano, garlic powder, coriander
• 2 frozen cilantro cubes (=2 tsp finely chopped cilantro)
• 2 shredded carrots

Directions

Heat a soup pot over medium heat. Add oil. Add broth, tomatoes, black beans and pumpkin puree. Stir to combine ingredients and bring soup to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and stir in spices and carrots to taste. Simmer 20 minutes, adjust seasonings and serve  Rachel Ray says use chopped chives, I say it's January and fresh herbs are expensive.