Black Bean Soup with Sausage and Sweet Potatoes

I love beans and lentils and now that it's getting chilly, I've started digging out my recipes and reading the soup sections of my favorite cookbooks to remember what we like. Tonight's soup was a new one. I've made black bean soups - who hasn't - but this recipe caught my eye. I was looking for recipes for sweet potatoes that didn't including baking or mashing, and here was something interesting!

So I soaked some beans, added a bay leaf, some allspice and some garlic, let it simmer, then added andouille sausage and a squeeze of tomato paste and a bit of worcestershire. I peeled and chopped up a big sweet potato (one pound plus), and steamed it, overcooking it a little bit. Then I put the potato in the soup. Before bringing it up to a simmer, I scooped out some of the beans and potato (avoiding the sausage) and pureed them in the blender. I put that back into the big pot and brought it to a nice bubble and let it cook for a few minutes.

It could've used a bit of green, maybe some cilantro or scallions, but the combo of the hot sausage, the sweet potato and the beans was just great. I'm already looking forward to lunch tomorrow!