Latest Recipes
Bean Soup

This recipe is one of my family's favorite soups. Rich and delicious makes it perfect for any season. For cold winter days you can add smoked meat to enrich its nutrient value. For summer days you can make a lighter soup with no meat in it. When served with fresh red onion and freshly baked bread it's a real treat.



- Makes about 10 servings
- 500 g pinto bean
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion
- 1 large carrot
- 1 red bell pepper
- 3/4 cup celery root
- 350 g smoked pork meat (smoked ham, bacon or smoked ham hocks)- optional
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 2.5 liters water
- 2 bay leaves
- 150 g tomato paste
- 3/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- salt and freshly ground pepper
- 200 ml sour cream
- 1 egg yolk
- Bread Bowls (Makes 2 bread bowls)
- 4 cups flour
- 350 ml water
- 1 tsp salt
- 25 g fresh yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast)
- Sesame topping (optional)
- 100 ml water
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp sugar
- sesame seeds
- Soak the beans in cold water overnight. Drain the beans and rinse them in cold water. Place the beans in a large pot with smoked pork, water and bay leaves and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes.
- In the meanwhile chop up the onion, carrot, bell pepper and the celery root. Heat oil in a medium stock pot over medium-high heat and cook onion for about 5 minutes until soft. Stir in carrot, celery root and cook another 5 minutes. Add red pepper and cook 1 minute more. Add them to the bean pot and simmer for another 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Add the tomato paste and paprika to the pot and cook for another 30 minutes. When all the vegetables and beans are tender mix the sour cream with the egg yolk and parsley in a large bowl, add 2 ladles of hot soup, stir well and add to the pot. Let boil for 1 minute and remove from heat.
- Serve with fresh red onion and freshly baked bread. You can also serve this soup in freshly baked bread bowls by cutting the top off and spooning the interior out leaving only 2 inches of bread inside.
- To prepare the bread bowls. In a large bowl, mix flour with salt. Dissolve the fresh yeast in water and add to the flour mixture. Mix everything together and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl. Cover it and let it rest for about 1 hour at room temperature, to let the dough rise until doubled in size.
- Divide the dough in two pieces and shape them into balls. Take two high small round pots (mine were 13 cm in diameter and 8 cm high), grease them with a little oil and add the dough balls.
- Preheat the oven to 180 (350F).
- If you want to add sesame seeds on top of the bread bowls, you need to make a sort of syrup so the sesame seeds won't fall. So bring the water with sugar and salt to a boil, and let it boil until almost all the water has evaporated, and remains only a white syrup.
- Brush the bread bowls with syrup (you will probably won't need all the syrup) and sprinkle sesame seeds. If you want you can press the seeds gently with your hand to make sure they stick.
- Bake for about 50-60 minutes until golden brown and have a thick crust to be able to keep the soup until served.

Yes, I will post it too, hope this week or later next week.

The recipe of bread bowls is posted. Sorry for the delay.

I just posted the recipe for the bread bowls. Sorry for the delay!

Yes, you are right, this is a very good idea.:) Thanks for sharing. The idea with the syrup remain good to in case you don't have any egg white available and you just want to make the bowls. I hope you try this bean soup, it is delicious.
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