Turkey and Black-Bean Soup

This soup is amazing. And it's easy. I highly encourage you to try out this recipe for Turkey and Black-Bean Soup.

Even though the ingredients in the soup are quite basic, I still have to modify the recipe a little bit and check the labels on several of the ingredients. Corn could be lurking anywhere! Therefore, I thought it would be simpler if I just gave you the entire ingredient list as I've modified it.

The only suggestions I would make to the cooking instructions are at the end of the recipe. Michael and I like adding a splash of lime juice to the pot of soup just before serving. If you are not serving the soup all at once, then do not add the spinach to the pot of soup. Instead, put 1 cup of cut spinach leaves in each bowl. Then pour the soup on top of the spinach leaves and stir to combine the soup and spinach. We like to eat this soup with potato chips on the side, but if you're not allergic to corn, I imagine that tortilla chips would probably be more in line with the cultural affinities of the soup.

Turkey and Black-Bean Soup
serves 4 people as a main dish

Ingredients:

• 1/4 pound bacon (about 4 slices), cut into 1/4 inch strips. To find a corn-free bacon, look for one that has just these ingredients: pork, salt, sugar, celery powder, and spices. I recommend a bacon I find at Trader Joe's called Classic Sliced Dry Rubbed All Natural Uncured Bacon. Another corn-free bacon is Hormel Natural Choice 100% Natural Original Uncured Bacon. Be sure that the bacon you use does not have any dextrose, sodium erythorbate, sodium lactate, or lactic acid starter culture.
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. chili powder
• 1/2 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
• OMIT the Tabasco sauce found in the original recipe. If you would like your soup a little spicier, add a dash of Cayenne pepper instead of the Tabasco sauce.
• 2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1 tsp. sea salt. Because I use regular chicken broth, rather than low-sodium, I decrease the amount of salt that I added to the soup.
  
• 1 3/4 cups (1 15-ounce can) of pureed tomatoes. We prefer the consistency of pureed tomatoes and the fact that they don't have any seeds. Try to get a can of tomatoes that contains only tomatoes and no additives, such as citric acid.
  
• 1 quart of homemade stock or regular (NOT low-sodium) chicken broth. If you use store-bought chicken broth, look on the label to make sure it does not contain any corn, wheat, soy, dextrose, MSG, xanthan gum, mono and diglycerides, natural flavoring, organic flavors, or vegetable flavor. The brand that I think tastes the best is Imagine Organic Free Range Chicken Broth. If you cannot find that one, Pacific Organic Free Range Chicken Broth and Trader Joe's Free Range Chicken Broth (but not the low-sodium version) are also safe to use.
• 1 2/3 cups (1 15-ounce can) of black beans, drained and rinsed. Try to get a can with just black beans, water, and salt.
• 1 1-pound pre-cooked turkey breast. A pre-cooked turkey breast is much less likely than deli turkey to have corn products added. The ingredient list should be very basic and not contain much more than turkey breast, turkey broth, sugar, and salt. I purchased Jennie-O Turkey Store All Natural Golden Roast Premium Turkey Breast.
  
• 1 6-ounce bag of pre-washed baby spinach, cut into strips. I was not all that exact with the cutting and just chopped a bit at the pile of spinach on my cutting board.
• a splash of lime juice. The original recipe didn't call for this, but it adds even another layer of flavor to a great soup.