Any nutritionist or gastroenterologist with foam at the mouth will prove to you how useful it is to eat first meals every day. And their enthusiasm for assurances can be understood: in recent years, in a hurry and having lunch on the run, we began to neglect the unhurried tradition of thoughtfully sitting at a plate of something hot and liquid. It is impolite on our part in relation to our body! It is not so difficult to cook, for example, bean soup with meat - the recipe provides only one long operation - soaking the beans, and that is, there are workarounds to solve this problem. And the rest - hearty, tasty and healthy. It is time to overcome laziness and the habit of eating a bit of bite and remember the benefits and pleasures of the first courses.
The easiest bean soup
Let's start with the most straightforward option. If you don’t fast, make bean and meat soup . The recipe recommends taking 0.5 cups of dried beans or one and a half frozen beans. Dry beans should be soaked in cold water in the evening, so it will boil faster. A small piece of 200 gram meat is put in a pot of boiling water. Boil - the foam is removed, then the meat is cooked for about half an hour, after which the beans are drained from the water. While it is boiling, frying is made from chopped onion and one carrot, cut into strips or cubes. When the beans are almost ready, three potatoes are chopped into the soup, chopped into small slices. After ten minutes, fry and salt are added; if you are not against garlic, at the same stage you can add a couple of chopped (but not crushed!) cloves. When the soup is fully boiled, the fire turns off, greens are poured - parsley with dill, and it insists under the lid for about a quarter of an hour.
In principle, you can replace dry beans with cans in any recipe - the soup with canned beans turns out to be no worse (photo below). Just lay it in the last place.
Bulgarian version
Residents of the Balkans have their own view on bean soup with meat - the recipe goes without potatoes at all, but it includes other vegetables. 0.5 kilos of dried beans are again steeped all night. Separately cooked broth from the selected meat. Shredded carrots, a small celery root, three onions and large bell peppers are fried in a thick-bottomed bowl with vegetable oil. As it turns red, a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste is added, and the frying is stewed in it for about five minutes. Then beans are added to it, with which the water is drained, and the vegetables are stewed by the whole company for about forty minutes, covered with a lid. When the beans are slightly softened, the broth is poured, garlic is laid (about five slices, or whole, or cut into slices), laurel and a full spoon of peppermint. Cooking continues over low heat until the beans are completely ready. It remains to generously season the soup with peppers - both red and black - salt and herbs. Carry on the table hot.
Canned Bean Soup
Not everyone likes to soak and cook dry beans for a long time. And in cooked form, they are sometimes hard, especially if they differ in size. There is an alternative for this case: you can make soup with canned beans. For him, the meat broth is cooked on the bone; when it is ready, pork (or beef) is removed, removed from the bone, cut and laid back. At the same time, potato wedges are thrown into the pan, while carrot-onion frying is being prepared at the same time. When it gets the right color, beans in tomato are added to the pan and stewed together for two to three minutes. Grams of 800 broccoli inflorescences are poured into the pan at the stage of half-ready potatoes, and after ten minutes the frying is poured. Salt and spices are added, and after three minutes the fire is extinguished, and the soup is left on the stove for insisting.
White Bean For Soup
Two glasses of beans, which stood the night in water, are poured into the water; when it boils, meat is placed on the bone there. After boiling and removing the foam, the onion is placed in the broth, into which two cloves are stuck. An hour later, the onion is thrown out, and the bone is removed to remove the meat. During this time, frying should be made of two small carrots, onions and a celery stalk. Soften - a spoonful of red hot or sweet pepper is poured. Four potatoes with small cubes, frying, chopped meat and 200 grams of cabbage chopped with squares are laid in the pan. Harvested "in a bunch" of white bean soup is cooked for about a quarter of an hour, served hot immediately. And - preferably - sprinkled with fresh herbs.
Red Bean Soup with Toasted Sausages
I must say that this type of bean is boiled for a little longer than white. Therefore, to speed up the process, you can take the trick: pour an incomplete glass of beans with a liter of water, boil for a couple of minutes, put in a colander, rinse with cold water from the tap, pour two and a half liters of fresh water and put it on fire again. After boiling, the beans will be ready in 20 minutes. From this moment, soup with red beans begins to boil . The recipe requires a tomato fry. That is, after cooking the usual, from a large carrot and two medium-sized onions, cubes of two tomatoes are added to the pan (no need to remove the skin) and three cloves of garlic, chopped in circles. Vegetables will be stewed for about ten minutes. When the time allotted for the beans passes, 4 potato sticks are poured; after 10 minutes, the frying is added, and after the next boiling - circles of four sausages, previously fried in vegetable oil. As soon as the soup boils again, it is covered with a lid, removed from the heat and infused for a quarter of an hour.
Mushroom Soup with Beans
If you are not too happy with the traditional bean soup with meat, the recipe can be supplemented with mushrooms that are compatible with the main component. The start of cooking is already familiar: beans soaked overnight are cooked (enough glasses for a two-liter pan). When the beans are half ready, the chicken (or its “spare parts” intended for the broth) is placed in the pan. At the same time, in brown butter and vegetable oil (in half), the mushrooms are fried until brown, about 200 g. Separately, they are fried from one carrot and one onion. Cubes of two potatoes are added to an almost finished bean, and after a dozen minutes - mushrooms and frying. Before turning off, the dish is salted and sprinkled with herbs.
Slow cooker soup
What is good about this device is that it eliminates unnecessary body movements during cooking. In order to cook the soup with beans in a slow cooker, you do not need to prepare anything separately: one and a half glasses of soaked white beans are added to the bowl, five chopped potatoes, chopped onion and carrot, two tablespoons of vegetable oil and water are poured to the mark. Depending on the model of the unit, either "Extinguishing" or "Soup" mode is selected, the timer is set for an hour - and that’s it! Before serving, you will need to season with spices, salt and herbs, and no more worries. The only clarification: if you have red beans or want soup with meat, the cooking time should be increased to one and a half to two hours.