People ask me all the time what my favorite thing to cook is. Once they find out that I’m a food blogger, it’s one of the first questions I get. For a long time, I didn’t know how to answer. Having a favorite thing to eat is one thing, but a favorite thing to cook? Do people have just one favorite dish to prepare? What if my favorite thing to cook changes weekly?

After years of thought, I have an answer: soup. Making soup is methodical and creative and easy. There’s something ritualistic and comforting about preparing it. It almost always starts with the same few steps – chopping an onion and sauteing it in olive oil, peeling and dicing vegetables, pulling out my favorite spices and flavorings. But from there, soup allows infinite creative possibilities. If I’m feeling healthy I’ll make a soup of lentils and vegetables and wholesome broth. For particularly cold days, a chili with lots of meat and beans and plenty of cheddar cheese is my go-to. Pureed vegetable bisques are elegant and great with fresh bread, and when I’m sick nothing but homemade chicken broth with egg noodles will do. I rarely use recipes, and the result is almost always good. And so, soup is my favorite thing to cook.

I’ll eat soup at any time of year, but it appears on our table most frequently during the winter months. From December until March you’ll find me making homemade chicken broth on the weekends, then experimenting with different soup recipes during the week. My most recent experiment resulted in a soup I loved so much that I immediately recreated it to share with you. It’s a Spicy Chorizo Soup with Israeli Couscous, made with fresh Mexican-style chorizo sausage, white beans and carrots and fennel seeds. But the real secret to this soup is a spoonful or two of mole sauce stirred into the soup just at the end. The mole gives the soup a little more heat and a lot more flavor – a bit of sweetness, some chocolatey notes, and a little nuttiness.

I just happened to have extra mole sauce in my freezer after making this Mole-Roasted Chicken, but I know that’s not a particularly common ingredient to have laying around. If you don’t have any, substitute another spicy chile paste, preferably one with some sweetness and depth of flavor. I think harissa would work well. Get ready to feel warm inside and out after a bowl or two of this!

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Craving more soup recipes? Here are a few favorites:

Black Bean Soup with Roasted Poblano

Sweet Potato and Coconut Milk Soup with Brown Rice and Lentils

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Spicy Chorizo Soup with Israeli Couscous and Mole Sauce

A Katie at the Kitchen Door original recipe.

• 1 TBS olive oil
• 1/2 lb fresh Mexican-style chorizo sausage
• 1 medium onion, peeled and cut into small pieces
• 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
• 3/4 cup Israeli couscous
• 3 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch round slices
• 1 cup cooked cannelini beans
• 6 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
• 1 TBS plus 1 tsp cheater’s mole sauce or other spicy chile paste

1. Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the fresh chorizo to the oil, removing the meat from its casings by squeezing it out with your hands into the pot. Use the back of a wooden spoon to break the sausage up into small pieces. Cook until the chorizo is browned all over, about 6-8 minutes, then add the onion and fennel seeds. Saute, stirring frequently, until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the couscous to the pot and stir to coat with the oil and chorizo juices. Toast in the oil for 1-2 minutes, stirring, then add the carrots, cannelini beans, and chicken stock to the pot. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook until the carrots are tender, about 20 minutes.
3. Just before serving, stir in the mole sauce or spicy chile paste. Taste and add more chile paste if desired. Serve immediately.

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Last weekend we got up to the White Mountains for a hike, something I’ve been aching to do since the first hint of coolness crept into the air. The weather wasn’t great – low gray clouds and cold – but I just wanted to get out there, so we went anyways. It’s so refreshing to be somewhere so quiet and fresh, and the four hours we spent walking up the misty slopes, and meandering down along the brook were exactly what I needed. The hike was invigorating, but with temperatures in the low 40s at the bottom and high 30s at the top, I was daydreaming about a big bowl of chili and a hot toddy before we even made it to the summit. It was 30° warmer back in Boston, but I already had my heart set on chili, so chili it was. I’d been brainstorming all the way home, and I knew I wanted a lamb, roasted butternut squash, and fresh tomato base with hints of sweetness and chocolate from cocoa powder and our home-brewed Russian Stout beer.

This chili came out even better than I wanted it to. I was kind of winging it, taking a few tricks out of other recipes I make as I went. – cocoa powder and allspice from our favorite steak rub, red wine vinegar and a splash of beer from my mom’s chili recipe, and roasting the squash with smoked paprika before adding it to the chili the way I do with pretty much all vegetables.Rich and saucy and slightly sweet, with just a hint of lip-tingling spice, it blows every chili I’ve made (except maybe my mom’s vegetarian chili, which is a completely different animal) out of the water. For me, at least, the slightly gamey, tender chunks of lamb are so much better than beef. I know there’s all kinds of debates raging about what qualifies as chili and what doesn’t, but in my book, this is chili and it’s damn good.

I’m also sharing this over on Instagram today for the Huckle and Goose #InstaPotluck. Huckle and Goose is a meal-planning service that provides truly inspired menus to your inbox once a week, with a focus on finding creative ways to use the vegetables you’re finding at the farmer’s market or in your CSA box that week, both the common ones (tomatoes, corn), and the stranger ones (hubbard squash, radicchio). In addition to creating their own seasonal recipes, they also license recipes from a group of really talented bloggers, and I’m thrilled to have some of my own recipes included in their meal plans from time to time. Seeing the recipes they use from other bloggers actually inspires me to create more original recipes that utilize whatever I’m picking in my garden or grabbing at the farmer’s market that week, rather than defaulting to old standbys – there are so many things you can do with fresh tomatoes besides caprese and tossing them with pasta!  If you’d like to give Huckle and Goose a try, you can use the code “INSTAPOTLUCK” to get 50% off any annual subscription (code valid today only, 9/23/2014) or sign-up for the two week free trial.

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Lamb, Butternut Squash, and White Bean Chili

A Katie at the Kitchen Door original recipe. Serves 4-6.

• 1/2 large butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2 inch cubes (about 4 cups cubed)
• 3 TBS + 2 TBS olive oil, divided
• sea salt
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 lb. cubed boneless lamb (cut for stew)
• 1 large onion, peeled and diced
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and diced
• 1 serrano chile pepper, stemmed, seeded and finely minced
• 1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and diced
• 1 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 c. water
• 2 TBS tomato paste
• 3 c. chopped fresh tomatoes, about 2 large (cores and stems discarded)
• 1 TBS red wine vinegar
• 1 (15 oz.) can of canellini beans, rinsed and drained
• 3/4 c. dark beer, such as stout
• grated cheddar cheese, for serving (optional)
• sour cream, for serving (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Toss the butternut squash with 3 TBS of olive oil, a generous sprinkling of sea salt, and the smoked paprika until evenly coated. Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast until tender when poked with a fork, about 30 minutes (stir/flip the cubes once after about 15 minutes). Remove the butternut squash from the oven and set aside.
2. Add the remaining 2 TBS of olive oil to a large stockpot and place over medium-high heat. Generously season the lamb with sea salt, then add to the stockpot and brown on all sides, which should take about 5 minutes (1-2 minutes per side). Use a slotted spoon to remove the lamb from the pot and set aside.
3. Add the onion, garlic, serrano, and bell pepper to the pot and saute, stirring frequently, until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the chili powder, cumin, cocoa powder, and allspice, and stir to coat the vegetables. Saute for 2 minutes longer, then return the lamb to the pot and stir to combine with the vegetables and spices. Add the bay leaf, water, tomato paste, chopped fresh tomatoes, and half of the roasted butternut squash, stir to combine, and bring to a simmer. Cover the pot and let simmer for 1 hour.
4. Remove the lid from the pot and continue to simmer the chili until it is thick and saucy. About 15 minutes before you plan to serve, add the red wine vinegar, canellini beans,the remaining half of the squash, and beer (add the beer slowly, as it will bubble up!). Stir to combine and taste for seasoning. Simmer for 15 minutes longer, to heat beans through, then serve immediately with grated cheddar cheese and sour cream.

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I had sort of thought that soup season was over, but apparently the weather disagrees with me.  All the cold, rainy weather we’ve had in New England (did someone switch April and June?) has had me drinking a lot of tea, baking, and craving cold-weather dishes.  I guess it could be worse, since soup is one of my favorite things to make – and eat.  It’s easy, quick, and pretty much the best way to pack a massive dose of vegetables into a single meal.  And this recipe is no exception.

I’ve tried a lot of recipes for soups and stews over the past two years, but there are a handful that I come back to time and again.  Portuguese kale soup, corn and cheddar chowder, minestrone, pork and black eyed pea chili, and this one.  I love how the pesto melts into the soup and gives it a smooth, creamy texture and an herbal, slightly sharp flavor.  Plus, the pesto makes this a good summer soup – perfect for a cold-rainy-wintery day in June.  I always use pecorino for this recipe, as I love how the sharp nutty tang plays off the creaminess of the white beans, but if you’re not a pecorino fan, substitute parmesan, or another hard, salty cheese.

In other news, I am immensely tired.  My trip to Spain was productive, if not super-fun, and I did manage to find blogging inspiration in some of the incredible meals we ate, which I’ll share with you later.  But the nutty schedule is starting to catch up with me a little bit, and I’m feeling kind of worn out.  Hopefully things will calm down soon and the sun will come back out, and you’ll be seeing a lot more of me (and with recipes for ice cream and grilling instead of soup)!

More like this…

Roasted Tomato and Lentil Soup

Black Bean Soup with Roasted Poblano

White Bean and Parsnip Soup with Guanciale and Fried Sage

White Bean, Kale, and Pesto Soup

A Katie at the Kitchen Door Original.  Serves 4.

• 2 TBS olive oil
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
• 4 carrots, peeled and sliced about 1/4 in. thick
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp dried parsley
• 4 c. chicken or vegetable broth (use vegetable broth to make the recipe vegetarian)
• 1/2 large head fresh kale, roughly torn into bite-sized pieces (or 1 1/2 c. frozen chopped kale)
• 1 can cannelini beans, rinsed
• 1/2 c. prepared pesto (homemade is best, but store-bought is fine too)
• 1/2 c. grated pecorino cheese
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg (optional, but I love the interplay of pecorino and nutmeg)

1. Heat oil in a large stockpot over medium heat.  Add onion and carrot, and saute, stirring occasionally, for 5-8 minutes, or until vegetables have begun to soften.  Add garlic, oregano, and parsley, and cook 2 minutes more, stirring.
2. Add chicken broth, kale, and beans, bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes, until kale and carrots are tender.  Remove from heat and stir in pesto, cheese, and nutmeg.  Serve hot with additional grated cheese and crusty bread.

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Udupi-Style Risotto with Dal

Adapted slightly from The Dance of Spices.  Serves 6.

• 1 c. Arborio rice
• 1/2 c. yellow split peas
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 TBS canola oil
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1/4 tsp asafetida
• 2 TBS chopped cilantro leaves and stems
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 medium Yukon gold potato, washed and cubed
• 1/2 a large eggplant or 1 small Japanese eggplant, diced
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 small head of broccoli, cut in 1-inch pieces (about 3/4 c.)
• 2 TBS tamarind concentrate, dissolved in 1/2 c. water
• 1 recipe rasam powder, recipe below
• 2 TBS butter

1. Combine rice and split peas in a bowl and cover with cold water.  Soak for 30 minutes, then drain and rinse twice.  In a large saucepan, combine rice, split peas, 3 1/2 c. water, and 1/2 tsp salt and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until split peas are tender, about 30 minutes.  Turn off heat and let stand, covered.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add mustard seeds and asafetida, and cook for about 1 minute, then add cilantro, turmeric, onion, potato, eggplant, carrots, bell pepper, and broccoi, and cook, stirring for 3-5 minutes.  Add dissolved tamarind liquid.  If needed, add more water to almost cover veggies, then cover pan, and cook over medium heat until potato is tender, about 8-10 minutes.  When potato is tender, season with salt and add the huli anna powder as well as 1 c. water, stir to combine then pour over rice and split pea mixture.  Stir to combine, then cook over medium heat for about 2 minutes, to allow the water to be absorbed.  Mix in 2 TBS of butter, and serve hot.

Rasam Powder

Recipe adapted from The Dance of Spices.

• 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 3 TBS coriander seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
• 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 10 fresh kari leaves
• 1 small, hot dried chile (such as a Thai chile), stemmed and broken into rough pieces
• 1/4 tsp asafetida

1. Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat.  Add coriander, cumin, peppercorns, fenugreek, kari leaves, and chile pieces.  Toast, stirring constantly, until the seeds are beginning to brown and the leaves are beginning to crisp, about 5 minutes.  Add asafetida and cook for 1 additional minute.  Transfer mixture to a mortar and pestle (or electric spice/coffee grinder) and pound or grind to a powder.

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It feels like ravioli season to me.  I don’t know that anyone ever named November ravioli month, but it would seem appropriate to do so.  It’s time for comfort food – it’s getting cold, the days are getting shorter, and all sorts of things that are delicious in raviolis – butternut squash, sage, chestnuts, mushrooms – are coming into season.  A bowl of steaming ravioli with a thick, tangy sauce seems about as comforting as comfort food can get.

I enjoy making pasta by hand, but I don’t do it that frequently.  To me it is only worthwhile when I’m filling the pasta with something interesting – the difference between the flavor of the $2 boxed fettucine and my hand cut fettucine is just not worth the time, but the difference between the flavor of pre-packaged tortellini and homemade ones is well worthwhile.  When I do break out the pasta roller for ravioli, I tend to make a lot at once and throw a few meals worth in the freezer.  It even goes by pretty quickly with help from a friend who’s willing to work for his dinner.

This particular recipe is another one from Peter Berley’s Modern Vegetarian Kitchen, and stuffs a classic semolina pasta dough with a white bean and sage filling, then serves the pasta in a light saffron-infused vegetable broth.  I did make a few significant changes to the broth, choosing to cook all of the vegetables together and then remove them all, leaving a clear broth, rather than leaving the carrot and fennel pieces in the soup, as the recipe calls for.  I enjoyed both parts of the recipe, and would make the broth again for an elegant presentation, or perhaps even as the base for a soup, but probably not if I was just going to eat the ravioli themselves – I think they might be better suited to a thick tomato sauce.  I might even take these the greek route, and add a small amount of feta cheese to the bean mixture, although they were also delicious with just the beans as a filling.  I did end up adding some of our homemade cheese to about half of the ravioli to a positive effect.  Yes, I said homemade cheese.  You can have the full story when we’ve got a little bit of a better handle on the whole cheesemaking process, but if our most recent attempt is any indicator, there may be some super delicious cheeses in our future.  With or without cheese, I enjoyed these bean filled ravioli, and I’m looking forward to the few dozen I have stashed in my freezer for the next month!

Looking for more ravioli?  Try these beet ravioli with goat cheese, these pumpkin stuffed ravioli served in a coconut curry sauce, or these delicate mint-flecked ravioli filled with sweet peas.

White Bean Ravioli in Orange-Saffron Broth

Adapted from Modern Vegetarian Kitchen.  Makes about 4 servings

For the pasta:

• 1/2 c. semolina flour
• 1/2 c. AP flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 2 TBS warm water
• 1/2 TBS olive oil

For the filling:

• 1 TBS olive oil
• 1/4 c. finely chopped onion
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 2 tsp finely chopped fresh sage
• pinch red pepper flakes
• 1 c. Great Northern beans, cooked (from 1/3 dried beans, soaked and cooked)
• 1 tsp red wine vinegar
• salt
• pepper

For the broth:

• 6 c. cold water
• 1 onion, chunked roughly
• 1 stalk celery, chunked roughly
• 1 carrot, chunked roughly
• 1 fennel bulb, chunked roughly
• 2 tsp tomato paste
• 8 garlic cloves, peeled
• 8 leaves fresh sage
• 2 tsp fennel seeds
• 1/4 tsp saffron threads
• 2 3-inch strips of orange peel
• 1 bay leaf
• 10 whole peppercorns

1. Make the pasta dough: in a large bowl, whisk together the semolina flour, AP flour, and salt.  Make a well in the middle of the flour and crack egg into well.  Beat egg lightly in the well, then add water to the well.  Use a fork to slowly pull the flour on the outside into the wet center, trying not to disturb the well for as long as possible.  Continue doing this until the dough is an even consistency.  The dough will be fairly dry, but should stay together when pressed.  If it does not, add 1 TBS of water.  Pull dough together into a loose ball, drizzle with olive oil, then wrap in plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.
2. Make the filling: heat a medium pan over medium-high heat.  Add the olive oil, onion, garlic, and sage, and cook for 5-7 minutes, until beginning to brown.  Remove from heat and add to cooked beans, along with vinegar, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.  Mash the mixture with a potato masher until it is mostly smooth with a few bean chunks.
3. Roll out the pasta according to pasta maker instructions, starting on the largest setting and working your way down.  Cut the resulting pasta sheets into 2-inch by 4-inch rectangles, and place a teaspoon of the bean filling on one side of each rectangle.   Use your pinkie finger dipped in cold water to brush the edges of the dough with water, then fold opposite side of dough over, pressing along edges to seal ravioli.  Work in batches – the dough will dry out quickly if it is left as sheets for long.  It will take longer to dry out when pressed in a ball.
4. Make the broth: place all the ingredients in a large stockpot and cook at a simmer for 1 hour, adding 1-2 cups more water if necessary as the water evaporates.  Strain the broth through a colander, catching the broth in a bowl and discarding the cooked vegetables and herbs (or eating them).  Season the broth to taste and set aside.
5. Cook the ravioli in a large pot of salted gently boiling water.  They should cook in approximately 2 minutes.  Serve ravioli in a warm bowl of broth, garnished with orange zest.

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A lot has happened since I last wrote – I’ve moved into a new house, started my first real job, weathered a hurricane, and learned my way around a new kitchen, meaning I have no shortage of writing material.  Actually, I’m a little overwhelmed by all of the things I could say, and the sudden extreme drop in the amount of free time I have.  I’m sure I’ll get used to the new schedule, but for now it still takes me three separate occasions to finish folding a basket of laundry.  So, at least for today, I’m gonna bypass the hurricane and my new kitchen and working life and stick with something I’ve really been meaning to get to – being less fat.  (Mostly figuratively, but a little bit literally too.)

You may have noticed that things have tended heavily toward the sweet side around here this summer.  First there was plum butter and chocolate crepes, then blackberry financiers, then lemon pound cake, and then blueberry and coconut pie.  All of these things were utterly delicious and worthy of blogging about.  (Except the financiers, which actually were just OK in my book, even though I still managed to eat them all in less than 24 hours.)  I made even more sweet things than I blogged about – reeses pieces cookies, frozen lemon meringue pie for Robbie’s birthday, and two other blueberry pies.  The number of times I had pie for breakfast in the 10 days before I left Maine was greater than or equal to 4, decidedly greater than if you extend “pie” to include “freshly picked wild blackberry crumble.”  It was a delicious summer for me, but even though I’ve been doing my best to keep up with running, vacation caught up with me, as well as with my very satisfied but slightly larger than desired middle.

But vacation is over. Literally. Because I just started my job. And not just like a summer job, like a career job.  I AM SO OLD.  But it’s exciting.  So it’s time for a little bit less pie (at least until apple season), and a little more filling, portable, “I can have you for dinner and still not mind taking you to work the next day” food.  Like this carrot, white bean, and feta salad, which has been a favorite for me this summer.  It’s a recipe that I’d had bookmarked since before I started blogging, and when I finally got around to trying it at the beginning of the summer, I thought it was just OK.  Warm, filling, tasty, but missing something.  Then, the next day when I was rummaging around for lunch, I reheated it until it was piping hot and added feta cheese, and was totally sold, and I’ve made at 4 or 5 times since then.  It’s also exceedingly easy, so easy that I can throw the carrots on the stove and leave them to caramelize while I get ready for work, then come back 10 minutes later, toss them with the rest of the ingredients, and be ready to go.  Sweet-tox, commence.

Caramelized Carrot, Cannelini Bean, and Feta Salad

Makes 2 servings.  Adapted from 101 Cookbooks.

• 3 TBS olive oil
• 5-6 large carrots
• 1 can cannelini beans, rinsed well
• 2 TBS chopped fresh dill, optional
• crumbled feta cheese, to taste
• 1 TBS lemon juice
• 2 shallots, thinly sliced
• sea salt, to taste
• 2 TBS brown sugar

1. Heat 1 TBS of the oil in a large pan over medium-high heat.  Peel carrots and cut thinly on the bias, then add to pan in a single layer.  Let cook about 5 minutes, then stir/flip, and continue cooking until carrots are caramelized all over.  If using, add chopped dill about 8 minutes after starting the carrots.  If serving salad immediately, turn down heat to low and let pan cool off slightly then add the beans and heat through – adding beans to the sizzling pan will make a huge mess.  If reheating later, just add the rinsed beans to a large bowl and add the hot carrots to the beans.
2. In a small bowl, whisk the remaining 2 TBS olive oil with the lemon juice and sea salt, and add sliced shallots.  Let sit 5 minutes, then toss with salad.  Stir in the brown sugar, and serve hot (not just warm!), sprinkled with crumbled feta cheese.

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We’ve reached that point in the semester that’s like the Wednesday of a busy week – fall break already seems like it happened months ago, Thanksgiving is about 30 midterms away, the excitement of being back at school has worn off, and we’re tired.  We need to be re-focused.  We need a detox – a mental, physical, and emotional detox.

My physical rejuvenation is getting a kick-start with my mom’s vegetarian chili.  It’s one of my favorite recipes of all time; long before I was doing my own cooking, or actively consuming vegetables, I frequently requested this for dinner.  It’s really, really good.  Like, it’s so good that I had some for breakfast this morning.  Vegetables?  For breakfast?  Katie?  Yeah, now you know it’s delicious.

I’ve been wanting to share this recipe pretty much since I started this blog, but I’ve been waiting for the right time, and now is definitely the right time.  It’s just starting to get chilly and crisp outside, it’s getting dark earlier, and a bowl of hot, nutritious chili is about as appealing as it gets.  This particular recipe is full of vegetables, beans, and nuts, so it’s super flavorful, energizing, and full of nutrients.  So that after you eat it you can continue your physical detox by ellipticalling infinity miles at the Belmont gym while watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall on TV.  Man I love those new ellipticals.  But seriously, I really can’t describe it adequately – you have to try it.  Served over rice or fresh cornbread and sprinkled with shredded cheddar, it’s perfection.

And you know what?  Making this chili and some corn-thyme biscuits was kind of an emotional detox too.  There’s something very therapeutic about being tired but calm and making something wholesome that takes time and patience.  And I also have this weird thing for cutting butter.  Literally, one of my favorite food memories is of sitting at our kitchen table in Prague, cutting sticks and sticks of frozen butter into little pieces for our Thanksgiving pies.  Maybe that’s beside the point.  The point being, make this chili.

Mom’s Vegetarian Chili

Serves 6

• 1 T olive oil
• 3/4 c. chopped celery
• 3/4 c. chopped onion
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
• 2 cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 c. raisins
• 1 T red wine vinegar
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 6 oz. beer
• 1/2 c. cashews
• cheddar cheese

1. Heat oil over medium heat in a large pot.  Add celery, onion, and garlic, and saute until softened.
2. Add tomatoes, beans, raisins, vinegar, bay leaf, and spices.  Stir to mix, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 1 1/2 hours.
3. Slowly stir in beer (it will bubble) and cashews.  Return to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered for 30 minutes.
4. To serve, remove bay leaf, and spoon over rice or cornbread.  Top with shredded cheddar cheese.

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