Grandma’s bean soup

This is one of my favourite dishes! I feel like I am saying it way too often, but it’s true. My grandma has been making it ever since I can remember. This soup is often served with dried meat, which you can add in the beginning of cooking, if you want to. It will add lovely smoky saltines and depth to the soup. I prefer the soup without the meat, served with green salad, pickled peppers or beetroot salad. But my most preferred way is having it with plain Serbian white bread and yoghurt.  

Ingrediens for 4-6

500-700gr beans

1 yellow onion

1 garlic clove

1 paprika

A bit of celeriac

2 carrots

1 parsley root

1 bay leaf

1tsp ground paprika

10 cumin seeds

4-5l+1-2dl water

2dl tomato juice

A handful of dill, parsley and celeriac leaves

Olive oil

Salt

300-500gr short cut pasta, optional

Process

Place the beans in a pot and cover with water. Leave overnight.

Throw away the water that beans have been sitting in and replace with fresh water. Bring to boil then throw away that water. Cover with new boiling water, bring to boil then throw away that water. Do this 1-4 times.

Finely chop the onion and the rest of the vegetables.

In a small pan, on a little olive oil and some water, sauté the onion until translucent.

In a large pot, place the beans, bay leaf and cover with water. (How much water you are going to add depends on how thick you want the soup to be.) Bring up to boil and cook for 15minuter. Then add the onion and the rest of the vegetables.

After additional 15minutes add the ground paprika, cumin seeds, salt. Continue to simmer.

In a separate pot, combine the tomato juice and water, bring to boil and simmer until it becomes little thicker in consistency. 

After 1 hour of total cooking time, add the tomato mixture to the simmering beans and vegetables. Cook for around 10minutes, then add finely chopped dill, parsley and celeriac leaves.

Cook for additional 20minutes. Towards the end, add the pasta and cook until al dente.

Total cooking time depends on how hard the beans are, but it is usually around 1,5 hours. Do not stir during cooking.

Serve with some bread and a salad. 

Enjoy!

M