Only beans? This must be too boring! Aha! You would be surprised…that is the secret. This simple dish inspired by the film, the Malaga Beanfield War, and it shouts (or sprouts): power food. You could go to battle with this soup…I love it. If you use different kinds of beans it just adds that extra: mmmm-factor… Serve it with tortillas, made the way my sister, Olivia, demonstrates in the pics.
How to gear yourself for feeding 4 people:
One onion
½ chilli (or more if you like it hot)
2 garlic cloves
4 more-or-less 8 cm sticks celery
One bay leaf
4 mixed cans of any beans of you feel like, for example chickpeas, cannellini beans, butter beans, red kidney beans, lentils…
2T extra-virgin olive oil
500ml home made veggie stock
At the end, to garnish:
One fresh red tomato
One small handful coriander leaves
A few gratings Parmeggiano cheese
More ideas to garnish:
Sour cream or crème fraiche
Lime juice
Avo slices
(Stick to 2/3 garnishes, it’s your choice which)
4 Tortillas, to serve
How to start training:
Chop the onion into chunks of roughly 1cm and the celery sticks in chunks about ½ cm thick. With a generous hand, add the olive oil to a medium-sized deep pan or casserole dish and put it on a medium heat. When the oil it ready and heated, about 30 seconds, add your onions and let go of the celery in as well. Turn down the heat to a low flame. Using a wooden spoon, stir the onions and celery a bit in the oil and let it cook gently for 7 minutes, also stirring occasionally. The aim is not to let it burn much, rather go for soft and melting onions and celery. Meanwhile, peel the garlic cloves by cutting off a very small piece at the end and the crushing it lightly with the side of your knife, so that the skin comes loose. Grate the garlic finely, and then chop the chilli! If you like things hot – use the seeds as well, if you like it mellows – scrape out the seeds. Dice it quite fine, because munching on a chunk of chilli is not so romantic. Add the garlic and chilli to your pan and let it cook for another 2 minutes, while you drain the beans of all its juices. This done, add your beans and stock and let in cook for 20 minutes in a medium heat. Don’t forget about it – it still needs love whilst bubbling away, so stir every now-and-then. You can dice the tomato, slice the avo, or chop the coriander and grate the parmeggiano so long, depending on what you chose. Get a pan ready for the tortillas. When the soup is done, turn it off and start by slicing the tortillas in triangles (as shown), heat up a non stick pan and go for it! Garnish and serve. Good stuff.
Take a rainy day, a few winter veggies and some sausage and you have yourself a soup oh- so-good you won’t mind drowning (your bread) in it… this Spicy Chorico and Vegetable Bean Soup is the perfect reason to stay inside on a rainy day.
It is definitely worth making a lot of it – so that you can still enjoy it a day later, for the rest of the week (just reheat thoroughly in a pan) or a month later (implying that it freezes well!).
All right, here goes:
For at least 18 helpings:
One pack streaky bacon
One chorico sausage
3 large onions (2 red and 1 brown, substitute with 3 normal brown onions, cuts no ice)
8 large carrots
4 big leeks (we did not have any so they were omitted, but they add goodness)
10 stalks celery (if readily cut in 8cm sticks, but otherwise it should make about 2 cups when chopped)
2 tins tomatoes (for a twist-in-the-tale use some tinned cherry tomatoes)
3 (225g each) tins beans (butter, red kidney, canellini)
2 litres home-made Chicken stock, or cubes mixed with hot water)
How it started:
Wake up and have breakfast in bed. At about 12h30, start chopping your onions into rough cubes, carrots into rounds as well as the celery and leeks. Put it aside. See this as the remedying part. Using a pair of kitchen scissors (it really is easier) or just cut it into strips with your knife. Don’t make it too small, otherwise it may disappear. The same goes when you chop up things, especially for a stock. If you are going to cook it for a long time, then bigger is better, because the flavour must still linger after all that time in the pot. Thinly slice the sausage into rounds (I used to cut it into thick rounds until the Spanish showed me otherwise). Now add the bacon and chorico with a swig of olive oil in a big pot, and fry to crisp up over a medium heat. This will take about five minutes. Next add all the chopped veggies (except the leeks ) to the pot and let it sweat (with the lid on) on a low heat. Let it sweat away for 5 minutes, after 5 add the leeks and let it sweat for another 5 minutes. During this time, don’t forget about the veggies, take your wooden spoon and mix to combine every now and then. Drain the beans of their juices and add them to the pot. Add the tomatoes as well. Hear it sizzle and add the stock (just enough to cover the veggies, use your own instincts as a guide), to hear it smother the sizzle. Add a lot of freshly ground pepper, but don’t reach for the salt, the sausage is known to be quite salty and spicy. Bring to the boil over a high heat and then when it bubbles, turn it down to a simmer (over a low heat, it will let out small bubbles) for 30 minutes.
Serve now, piping hot with some crusty bread and butter, parmeggiano cheese, soft brie and a pear for dessert. Now that is how I like lunch.
