Curried Navy Bean Soup
(Featured in Fine Cooking’s Spicing up Soup Week)
The devil of the winter is back and has a big table of a variety of wintry mix for us. Snow, ice, sleet, freezing rain, howling winds – you name it, and we have it!
I would take piles of snow any day to the slippery frozen roads. The warmth of the weekend was a just a tease. North east regions of Texas do experience some ice and snow, but is not at all equipped to deal with conditions like these. The streets look like a glistening frozen lake. All the homes look nice, cozy and happy with shimmering lights through the window panes; no one could step out of their homes. And we have had 4 consecutive snow days, which is certainly a very welcome thing. Having the entire family together at home on weekdays is a surprise gift!
Now this kind of weather only calls for a hot, smoky and spicy soup; filling, satisfying and nourishing at the same time.
Curried Navy Bean Soup
Ingredients:
- 1 cup dried navy beans
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- crushed red pepper
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- a sprinkle of roasted cumin powder
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika, or as much as you desire
- 1/3 cup chopped onion
- 2 cloves of garlic, sliced
- 1/4 cup chopped celery
- 2 carrots, sliced/diced
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- salt and pepper
- 1.5 teaspoons coriander powder
- stock or water
- fresh parsley or cilantro for garnish
- fresh lime or lemon
Note: use any kind of chopped vegetables
Preparation:Soak the beans overnight if possible.
Heat oil in a pan or a pressure cooker pan. Add the cumin seeds and red crushed pepper. When the seeds start to sizzle add the onion, garlic and celery. Cook them at medium heat for about 2 minutes. Add the carrots, (and/or any other vegetable you might be using) coriander powder and the tomato paste and 4 tablespoons water. Add salt, pepper, oregano, smoked paprika and the roasted cumin powder. Toss for everything to combine and cook at low to medium heat for another 3-4 minutes.
Add the soaked beans and stir them in with the mix in the pot. Add about 3 times the water (or as much as you would need to cook the beans and have desired consistency of soup). Cook till the beans are tender. I use a pressure cooker, which is the easiest way to cook beans and is usually done in minutes.
Garnish with fresh herbs and crushed pepper/black pepper and finish off with a squeeze of lemon/lime juice.
Serve warm with crusty bread.
The soup is on its way to dear Susan’s MLLA#32, hosted at Sandhya’s Kitchen.
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Turkish Red Lentil Soup with Sumac
Just saw your snowy pics 🙂 It’s bitter cold here as well, but not much snow. That soup bowl is warming me up now :-)loving the floating red pepper flakes..
A deliciously spicy soup! Very flavorful and pleasant.
Cheers,
Rosa
That’s one comforting bowlful … love that spicy red colour. 🙂
Soma! How did you know I was looking for a new way to use white beans? I love them in my usual Italian sauteed kale and onion dish, but we were definitely getting bored with each other. This should spice that relationship right back up =D
What a lovely way to ward away the winter blues! The soup looks very comforting and healthy too.
wow…yum n delicious…simply amazing..betn hru doing soma
Looks yum …love the beautiful colour ….n the pics
It’s amazing how we have the same dishes but with different spices. See fassolada in my cookbook.
Love the coulour. The spices are excellent for winter. Love the filling & comforting soup
soup looks delicious,…perfect with bread
This is such a good and healthy bowl of soup, need to make it today only….lovely recipe !
That should brighten up any cold dreary day. It sure has been a weird weather time.
Lovely pics.. the spilled pepper.. the sprig of coriander.. so cute! 🙂 The soup looks fiery! I am encouraged to make some soup with whatever I have in the pantry/fridge now!
Cheers!
Beautiful photographs. Love the flavour of this curry.
mmm..I’m looking at the pics of this soup and it’s warming me up. I wish I had a bowl right now! We have had the worst winter here in Northeast…and cannot wait for the warmth of Spring… *sigh*
The soup looks delicious and like something that will warm you to the core!
such a warm and hearty soup love the 2nd pic, so elaborate and in-depth gorgeous!
The add very colurful dish. And very healthe . very great ful suop.
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boll