My grandmother's plain bean soup was made with water. I keep homemade pork and chicken stock in the deepfreeze, mostly to enrich my vegetable soups. I had some leftover ham too, I put that in the soup, but the ham was not cooked with the soup, so it's optional.
BEAN SOUP
1 cup white beans
6 cups of homemade pork soup stock
ham pieces - optional
2 carrots,
1 parsnip
small wedge of celery root
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp onions, finely diced
1 garlic, minced
2 tbsp flour
2 tsp Hungarian paprika
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp parsley
handful of fresh csipetke
sour cream
• Soak the beans overnight.
• The following day discard the soaking water and rinse the beans thoroughly.
• Place the soup stock in a medium sized pot.
• Add the beans and the ham pieces.
• Bring to boil, reduce heat to slow simmer and place a lid on the pot.
• Cook until beans are soft.
• Add a handful of csipetke and continue to simmer.
• Peel and slice the carrots, parsnip and celery root wedge.
• Add vegetables to the pot.
• Slowly simmer until vegetables and csipetke are all soft.
• Place 2 Tbsp olive oil in a non stick fry pan.
• Ass the diced onions and crushed garlic slowly cook until soft.
• Add the flour and cook for 1 minute, continually stirring.
• Remove from heat and stir in the Hungarian paprika.
• Add the paprika sauce to the soup, cover and let stand for 15 minutes.
• Serve bean soup with sour cream.
