ole! Mole!

Lest you all think that all I can do in the kitchen is bake sweet things (remember...I aspire to be a pastry chef ;) ) I made a most tasty soup for dinner the other night and just had to share. It seems after my long string of knitting entries, I've gone back to my interest in cooking :P For some reason I can't seem to focus on both! Ah well, I've made *some* progress on my knitting, so things aren't at a complete stand still :) and at least this means I'm eating better again (chalk that one up to the new years resolutions).

Without further ado, here is my adapted version of Turkey Mole Soup (adapted from Cooking Light's 2004 Holiday Cookbook Collection). Before we get too far, I'm sure some of you are wondering why on earth I would cook a mole....as in one of those small, fuzzy, mostly blind, sometimes cute, insect-eating burrowing mammals. Well, fear not, while I am an adventurous eater, I don't eat small burrowing mammals (nope, not even bunnies - while I have tasted bunny (tastes like chicken, believe it or not), I had bunnies as pets when I was a kid and had no idea what I was being fed at the time. I wasn't happy about it when I found out I had partaken of Thumper). Mole, in this case, is dark brown Mexican sauce made of various chiles, spices, seasonings and....chocolate! Yep, chocolate. mmmm....let this be a lesson to you, chocolate can be added to things you wouldn't normally associate with chocolate! And it tastes oh so good! Mole can be found in most grocery stores that carry Mexican foods, and in my case, I used Trader Joe's Mole - which was surprisingly chocolatey.

Turkey Mole Soup

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 pound lean ground turkey
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
2 tablespoons chili powder
6 garlic cloves, minced (I love garlic!)
1/4 cup prepared Mole sauce
1 quart chicken broth
1 19 ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 4.5 ounce can chopped green chiles, undrained
salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Method:
Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, and saute until the onion is translucent. Add the turkey, stirring to crumble and cook until browned. Add the bell pepper and chili powder, cook for about five minutes, stirring frequently.

Combine the mole and chicken broth, and add to the turkey mixture. Add the black beans, tomatoes, green chiles and salt and pepper to the pot, stir the soup to combine and bring it to a boil.

Once boiling, cover the pot, reduce the heat and simmer for about twenty minutes. Just before serving, adjust seasonings as necessary and throw in the cilantro.

Serves 8.