Ready for Plan B is kicking off a new series where we will feature guest chefs each Monday. The goal is to help our readers to find great recipes to have success with their Meatless Mondays (and beyond!). There are so many great vegan chefs and bloggers out there and I’ve been fortunate to link up with many through twitter and the blog. I am very grateful to them for helping me pull this off and we hope you find this series helpful!

The second recipe in the series comes from a blog that I am a fan of, Shelley Langenhorst’s milehighhealthy.com. Shelley is a great chef and her food looks incredible. I’m very grateful to have her involved in the series!

Without further adieu, Chef Shelley:

I’m good at taking one meal that I really like and turning it into something else.When you know you like a combination of ingredients, why not capitalize on that and create more than one recipe!! This soup is was inspired by one of my favorite meals, chili stuffed sweet potato.  I used pretty much the exact same ingredients, just in a different way. My plan was just to make a veggie soup and then right as I was falling asleep the other night inspiration struck and I decided to make a soup version of stuffed sweet potato. I already had all the ingredients on hand and thought how bad could it be?? Turns out, not bad at all. This meal blew me away!! I could seriously eat it every day. The only thing I would change is to double the recipe next time. It made 4 decent sized servings but I could have eaten way more.

There is something so satisfying in taking whole, unprocessed ingredients and creating a recipe that really wows. Recipes like this prove that plant-based foods that are good for you can be visually stimulating as well as filling and comforting. I am very proud of this soup and encourage you to try it soon!

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Soup

Ingredients

• 1 white or yellow onion, diced
• 2 bell peppers (I used a red and a green), diced
• 1 large tomato, diced
• 1 large or 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 quart vegetable stock
• Seasonings: chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper
• 2 cups or 1 drained and rinsed can of black beans
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• Toppings: jalapenos and guacamole

Directions

1. Heat olive oil in a soup pan. Add onions and peppers. Saute until soft, about 7-10 minutes.
2. Add tomato, stir. Add sweet potato, stir once more. Let sit for 2-3 minutes.
3. Pour in veggie stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer. Cover and cook for 30-40 minutes (until potatoes are tender)
4. Once the potatoes are cooked, add in desired amounts of seasonings (I was heavy-handed with the chili powder and cumin)
5. Take 30-50% of the soup and put it in a blender. Blend until smooth.
6. Add blended soup back in the pot. Add in black beans and corn. Stir and heat through.

Make sure sweet potatoes are diced in small, uniform pieces so they cook well.

Sweet Potatoes

Top with jalapenos and guacamole (I stirred in a little green chili too!) and enjoy.

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Soup

Thank you Shelley for contributing this wonderful recipe! Please check out her blog here and you can follow her on twitter @Shelley827