One of the side effects of a pressure cooker is bean cooking liquid. I have only recently learned that it makes a great basis for simple soups. If you drain pressure-cooked beans after cooking them, you can just catch the liquid in a large bowl, pour it in a container and pop it in the fridge. I admit, I always used to throw away bean liquid after seasoning my bean dishes (I would reserve it because sometimes beans absorb a lot of liquid as they sit, and it’s better to add their cooking liquid than water), but I am ready to tell you now, I was a fool. When I had that awful, awful flu recently, I saved some bean liquid from some black beans, thinking I’d need it to add to them later. I didn’t, and the next day I had a lunchtime inspiration – black bean liquid + leftover chopped canned tomatoes from the fridge + half a bag of frozen corn – so off I went. And it was shockingly good. I have since made another bean liquid soup with white bean liquid, adding a little dill, olive oil, salt and pepper, and lemon juice, and got an equally pleasant result. You can always add some of the cooked beans back to it as well.
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