Cold Nights Call for Hot Soups

We had two new kinds of soup recently:

Navy Bean Brown Rice Soup

• 1 lb dry navy beans, soaked over night
• 2 celery sticks - sliced
  
• 4 tomatoes - chopped
  
• 1 onion - chopped
  
• 8 cloves of garlic - copped
  
• 1 cup of brown rice
• carrots - as much as you please - chopped/sliced
• bay leaf
• veggie broth
• crushed red pepper
• dried parsley
  

Start cooking the beans - start at least two hours before your meal time - in 6 cups of water. After about an hour, add the rice, and start cooking the other ingredients in a frying pan: Heat some oil, add the onion, and cook till it browns a bit. Add the garlic, then the celery and carrots. Add this veggie mix to the beans and rice, as well as the tomatoes, and cook on low. Add veggie broth and a couple more cups of water. Also add spices: bay leaf, parsley, crushed red pepper, and salt.
This soup can fill you up by itself, but we prefer to serve it with some delicious bread.

Sweet Potato Leek Soup

• 3 cups of sweet potato, finely diced
• 1 large onion, chopped
  
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 3 leeks, cut to rounds
• 4 cups of veggie broth
• 2 t cumin
• 2 t crushed red pepper
• 1 can coconut milk (400 ml)
  

In a big pot, heat some oil, and brown the onion. Add garlic, then leek. Cook for a little while, then add the spices. Stir for a few seconds, then add the broth. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the sweet potatoes, and simmer for 10 minutes, or until sweet potatoes are soft. Puree and return to pot for reheating and add coconut milk.
I have spoken before about the amazing combination of leeks and sweet potatoes, and indeed, adding the coconut milk makes it even more heavenly.
We ate it with some yammy bread.