chapotraphouse

What I do is, about once a week I spend about 4 hours making a huge dish that lasts me all week. I have a big pot. I don't know how many gallons it is. Probably 10. Takes up an entire shelf in the fridge. I spend the afternoon dicing vegetables and watching the kid. Onions, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, celery, fresh garlic and sometimes other vegetables. Shitake mushrooms if I have them soaked overnight. I zest and squeeze citrus into the pot along with the veggies. The pot is about 1/3 full of veggies. I cook the veggies on a low heat in a shallow pool of water until they're transluscent, stirring as I go. Then I add about 4 or 5 different types of beans, usually canned because I'm lazy, but sometimes rinsed. Black beans, red beans, pinto beans, cannelini beans. Then I turn the heat up on high for the last 10 minutes and keep stirring, adding spices, usually garlic powder, onion powder, sazon, pepper, adobo, cumin. Then I add herbs right at the end. Usually a whole bag of fresh chopped cilantro. If I have any leftover beans that wouldn't fit in the pot, I blend them into a hummus to dip tortilla chips in, or put on top of a salad. Throughout the week, when I want to eat the beans, I'll cook either some rice or pasta to put them on. But sometimes I'll just have the bean soup by itself microwaved with a little nutritional yeast or hot sauce something.