Jamaican Me Soup’n Crazy with A Jalapeño Cough!

This soup club was one I was looking forward to for weeks. It was finally coming back around to my week, I had been sweating, pacing my room, dwelling on my thoughts, what oh what could be the perfect soup recipe this time around???

And then it hit me.

Flashback to last soup club, Tam brought in her fabulous dill pickle soup, and Jeff was showing a recipe blog that had something quite interesting… a Jamaican jerk black bean soup… That sounds good.

I love me some Jamaican/Caribbean food, and with the weather outside slowly welcoming a cool midwestern fall, many of us are yearning for the warmer summer days (the others are running into the flannel-wearing, leaf-crunching, cider mill laden dream that is Fall… It's me, I'm doing that…) and what a perfect soup for that summer-y vibe while Michigan can’t decide if it will be 50 or 80 out.

Overall, pretty easy soup to make, though in the air of soup’r honesty, I did have one slight difference in the soup you see in the recipe, and the one in the photos… I didn’t make enough black beans, and ran out, so I had to include an extra can of a tri-bean blend of red kidney, pinto, and black beans. I'm sorry, truly and deeply. I have learned from my mistakes, and I will be better in the future.

Anyways.

I got off a call about 5 before noon, dressed the table, prepared the ladle, put out the toppers, and already I was getting compliments on the smell: rich, earthy black beans, decadent, mouthwatering spices, and the sweet scent of the mango relish… I happily stacked my bowl, alongside Kevin (who apparently had been raving all day about how he can't wait for this mango relish), and slowly the rest poured in.

A quiet period ensued of everyone sipping and slurping their soup, a few coughing fits from Jeff who couldn’t handle his jalapenos, and I swear Kevin almost melted into his chair in pure comfort.

The ratings came in, Kevin giving it an astounding 9.75, Jeff disappointingly giving it a 7.7 (which he then later upgraded to an 8.0, and then demoting it again to a 7.7 due to user error as he spilled some on his shirt), Andy gave it an 8.2, and Tam rounding it out with an 8.5. This gave the soup an average rating of 8.53, and even got high marks from non-member Felton, who gave it a good 8.5 as well.

My one recommendation for all you soup’rs out there is 1) include more beans (and they should all be black beans), like at least double the amount. And 2) Blend them in better than I did. This should be a thicker soup, but it HAS to have the mango relish, the sweet to balance out the spicy kick was chef's kiss.

Keep calm and keep on soup’n on.

-Conlan