Title: Red kidney bean soup
 Categories: Soups, Appetizers, Lunch, Vegetables, Mark's
      Yield: 1 Recipe
 
      1 tb Vegetable oil
      1 md Onion, sliced
      4 ea Garlic cloves, crushed
      1 md Carrot, sliced
      2 tb Red chiles, chopped, fresh*
    1/2 ts Thyme
      2 tb Parsley
      2 ea Bay leaves
    1/2 c  Tomatoes, finely chopped
      3 ts Tomato paste
      1 c  Red kidney beans, soaked
      7 c  Vegetable stock
           Salt & pepper
    1/2 tb Nutritional yeast, optional+
 
  Heat oil in a large soup pot.  Stir in the onions, garlic and carrots.
  Cover & sweat over low heat for 5 minutes.  Add the chiles and herbs,
  stir well & continue to cook, covered, for a further 5 minutes.  Stir
  in the tomatoes, tomato paste & kidney beans.  Mix well, ensure that
  the heat is very low, & cook for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring
  occasionally. Pour in the stock, season with salt & pepper & bring to
  a boil. When at a full rolling boil, let it boil hard for 5 minutes,
  then reduce the heat & simmer until the beans are tender. The length
  of time will vary, depending upon the age of the beans, from 50
  minutes, to 2 hours. When cooked, turn off the heat, stir in the
  nutritional yeast, if desired & let cool.
  
  Once cool, transfer the soup, in batches, to a food processor or
  blender & blend until very smooth.  Return to a clean pot & gently
  re-heat. Serve with good, home-made bread.  It will also work with a
  good, hearty flat bread, if that's not too much of a contradiction in
  terms. Try a Native flat bread, for example.
  
  * I'm experimenting with fresh chiles rather than dry ones, I find the
  flavour to be intense, but I find that I may be over doing the
  quantities, so reduce the amount if you prefer less hot food.  If you
  do not have fresh, a good guideline is to use dried in the following
  quantities: 1 dried chile gives a mild flavour; 2 give a medium heat;
  3 will be hot; then there's people like me & others who will go up
  from there, depending upon taste.  The trick is to use only enough
  chiles so that the other tastes are not masked.
  
  + This is optional.  It's another area of experimenting.  I find that
  a little nutritional yeast in pureed foods, or in "cream" sauces,
  gives added creaminess to dishes.  It is entirely up to the cook.