Skip to main content

American bean soup

Prep: 20 minutes, plus overnight soaking time for the beans
Cook: about 1 ½ hours
Makes: about 8 ¼ cups or first-course servings

§ 450g dry white beans (cannelloni, haricot or similar); 2tbsp olive oil;
§ 1 medium onion, chopped; 1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped;
§ 1 medium celery stalk, chopped;
§ 2garlic cloves, finely chopped
§ 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock;
§ 170g chunk ham (or chicken ham), cut into ½ -inch pieces (about 1 cup);
§ 1 chicken stock cube (if using chicken ham); 1tsp jeera (cumin) powder; 1tsp paprika; salt to taste;
§ ¼ tsp ground black pepper; 2 medium tomatoes, coarsely chopped;
§ 1 cup loosely packed parsley leaves, chopped;
§ 2tbsp fresh lemon juice

1. Rinse beans under cold running water; pick out and discard stones and shrivelled beans. Place in a bowl with enough water to cover by about 2 inches. Cover and let beans stand at room temperature overnight. Drain and rinse.
2. In 4-littre saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook 8-10 minutes or until onion is tender and lightly browned, stirring occasionally. Add carrot, celery and garlic; cook 5 minutes, stirring .
3. Add stock and beans (and stock cube, if using) to saucepan in which vegetables are simmering; bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 30 minutes, or until beans are tender. Stir in ham, jeera, paprika, salt, pepper. Cover and cook 15 minutes.
4. Top serve, lable soup into 8 bowls; top with tomatoes, parsley and lemon juice.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Epitome of Equality

First of all This is not to demean any religion.. I am a Hindu by birth, but yes I respect all religions .I offer my daily prayers , fast on holy days , but there was something that was disturbing me . God as per me was a Friend, someone who was by my side always , someone who was a dear friend , but this is not what everyone else thought , for others he was the Judge who gives his verdict always and punishes anyone and everyone . Walk into any temple and you would see , if you have money , you will be treated in a way as if you are the ONLY disciple of the God . I have had too many experiences where I was treated as a second class citizen in the temple . Why? Well I could not afford giving thousands as donation. This is not how it should be , God looks at each one of us with the same divinity .As I mentioned God for me is a friend, so tell me, do we chose friends based on their bank balances? Do we give our verdict on them ? then how can God do it? I know many of us would ...

"My cousin touched me there"

Note: When Tan suggested me to post this here...I gave it a thought. I felt he was right.  yeha I know in the election times ..people would be more inclined to politics. Well still..just give it a read :) For the first time when she came in I knew she is going to be one of my best pals. she was bubbly chirpy sociable and a caring human being.she was I felt my true copy. But what I felt wasn't true and I'd never known that trait of hers which never matched mine had such a reason behind it. She never liked to talk or be familiar to the opposite sex. I found this irritating but I just used to remember all her other traits which brought her close to me and made her one of the closest beings to me on this Earth. As she and I had got very close in friendship that we began sharing secrets which we never thought would come out of our mind. And I thought I understood her as I thought she was me. Then one day as we were alone in my room I asked her why she was so unfamiliar and irritat...

Does India need communal parties?

I think, it was Tan's post on this blog itself, Republic Day Event, where this question was raised. My answer. YES. we need communal parties even in Independent, Secular India. Now let me take you, back to events before 1947. When India was a colony of the British Empire. The congress party, in its attempt to gain momentum for the independence movement, heavily used Hinduism, an example of which is the famous Ganesh Utsav held in Mumbai every year. Who complains? No one. But at that time, due to various policies of the congress, Muslims started feeling alienated. Jinnah, in these times, got stubborn over the need of Pakistan and he did find a lot of supporters. Congress, up till late 1940's never got bothered by it. And why should we? Who complains? No one. But there were repercussions. The way people were butchered and slaughtered during that brief time when India got partitioned, was even worse than a civil war scenario. All in the name of religion. And there indeed was cr...