Cuban Bean, Lemon and Cilantro Soup
May 12th, 2008 by Margot[adapted from Tofu for Two]
INGREDIENTS
2 medium onions (cubed)
1 whole medium garlic (crushed with a side of the knife and peeled)
2 tbs grape seed oil
about 2½ litres of hot water
500g dry black turtle beans or red kidney beans (soaked overnight)
2 tbs balsamic vinegar
2 medium sweet red bell peppers (cubed)
1 tbs smoked paprika
3 large bay leaves
1 pinch Cayenne pepper or other chilli powder, some chilli flakes or 1-2 crushed dried brid’s eye chillis
1 tsp dried oregano
sea salt or even better Adobo seasoning or some vegetable stock granules to taste
2 handfuls of freshly chopped coriander / cilantro
lemon / lime wedges to serve
fresh bread and butter to serve
METHOD
Fry onions and garlic on oil until translucent on the bottom of large pot.
Add chopped peppers and fry some more.
Then add water, soaked previously, rinsed and drained beans, vinegar, smoked paprika, chilli powder, bay leaves and oregano. Bring the soup to boil over large fire, let it bubble for a while, then reduce the fire, cover and simmer for about 2 and half hours. Add more hot water if needed.
Then mash beans in the soup with potato masher, season with salt or Adobo and cook a while longer.
Remove from fire, stir in coriander and serve to the plates with lemon/lime wedges on the side and some fresh, crunchy bread with butter.
Serve 4-5 people.
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May 12th, 2008 at 11:05
So well presented and so delicious sounding. A must try.
May 12th, 2008 at 13:37
I know I’d enjoy this soup with some rustic crusty bread.
May 12th, 2008 at 15:28
this sounds tasty but not terribly authentic. grapeseed oil? balsamic vinegar? and no cumin? i also don’t understand why so many people seem to think that cuban food has things like hot chilis in it. sure, some cubans like hot sauce, but the food itself is not supposed to be hot/spicy. i’m not trying to attack you — am just frustrated by the inaccuracies all over the blogosphere.
May 12th, 2008 at 17:51
Dear Margot, If you have time see my blog I post a recipe of your that I try, is a Tag that we have to try some recipes and I choose one of you. xxxGloria
May 12th, 2008 at 18:13
wow, this looks delicious! i love cuban black bean soup… you make it sound so easy. i will definitely try this recipe!
May 12th, 2008 at 18:19
i love love love black bean soup. i’ve never used either balsamic vinegar or bay leaf – sounds like they add great flavor. and smoked paprika is one of the best spices of all time, so you know this has to be good!
May 12th, 2008 at 20:15
Thank you for all the comments
Gloria – Sure, thank you for tagging me, I will take a look at your site, but I think I know already what I will want to prepare, I remember some delicious salad you had on your site, with lettuce and walnuts…
Confused – Grape seed oil was my replacement for olive oil, but except that recipe is almost the same with the original one… I will ask my Cuban friend Bren about her opinion how to make it more Cuban but the soup is delicious the way it is …
May 13th, 2008 at 04:30
Confused, I hear your concerns, as an authentic, 1st generation Cuban cook. We do use cumin in a lot of food, but not everything. Margot is okay in substituting her oil for grape seed if she likes. It won’t take away from the origin of the soup. One thing you’re right about is the use of chili peppers. It’s not something we typically use nor is the chili powder.
Margot, to make it “more” Cuban, what ever that is, I’d cut the balsamic vinegar (vinegar period), use some green peppers instead of chili peppers and maybe add a bit of tomato sauce or chicken or vegetable broth. Keep the bay leaf! I’d skip on the cumin since you have smoked paprika…
Lastly, when I make an authentic Cuban dish, I like to infuse some other flavors I like but didn’t necessarily grow up eating or even taught to use in our cooking. However, my use of mint in my “Cuban” meatballs, doesn’t make them any less Cuban.
Either way, the soup looks good and I’m sure it was great. Hope this helps.
May 13th, 2008 at 05:17
This is my type of soup! I make Italian white bean soup pretty often, and Turkish and Azerbaijan bean stew, too, and your recipe will be a new addition to my collection.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:47
Bren, thank you sooo much for your opinion, I will try to use green peppers next time… I used only pinch of chilli powder, soup wasn’t hot, just a little spicy. I could also replace Adobo with chicken cubes or Maggi cubes. I love this soup so I will be experimenting with more than once
May 13th, 2008 at 13:06
Hi Margot and all,
It was a lot of fun reading your discussion about our soup! The recipe we posted was pretty much just an approximation of a memory of the soup we were served in Habana – as Finns living in Finland, I guess that our attempts to cook an authentic Cuban soup (whatever is meant by authenticity) would be doomed to fail miserably! I’m sorry about the confusion, we probably should have named it something else…
Well, one secret for Cuban home-cooking I did learn in Cuba: our dearest Habana hostess showed me a spice package her son had sent from Miami, telling me that it’s her favorite, and she uses it everywhere (although sparingly – it was quite precious to her). The bag contained Sazón , a spice mix by Goya, something I’d been used to seeing in the supermarkets in Florida! If I could buy it in Finland I would, just for old times’ sake…
Balsamic vinegar, definitely not Cuban! I just love it in soups and think it added a nice dimension to black beans too… And when it comes to chilli, I can’t remember getting any spicy food in Cuba. Although our soup definitely wasn’t hot at all, with half a teaspoon of chilli in a huge pot of soup!
-Anni.
May 13th, 2008 at 17:17
Anni, thank you for visiting
I love Sazon seasoning, I will try to use it next time in the soup, as we have some still from Dominica. I think it is a secret of most Caribbean dishes! I will write some post about it shortly.
I love balsamic vinegar in the soups as well, especially in Green Pea Soup with Parmesan and Balsamic Vinegar that I make quite often.
Adobo is another very popular seasoning in the Caribbean, that is why I used it in the soup instead of the salt… it is like vegetable salt, you can read about it here.
May 14th, 2008 at 07:21
Margot – I hadn’t realized that adobo is similar to Vegeta! We have that and it’s very nice – thanks for the information!
-Anni
May 19th, 2008 at 16:27
WOW Margot, this looks delicious and stunning pics
Rosie x
May 19th, 2008 at 16:43
Cuban/not Cuban, either way I love the sound of this soup, and it consists largely of things I always have on hand, making it a great Sunday night standby. Thanks!
March 23rd, 2009 at 00:42
Just discovered your blog….this sounds fabulous!