Stone Soup

Simmer up some good!

What is simmering in your life right now? What’s bringing you warmth and goodness? This morning, shafts of early sunlight blasted through ice glazed-windows while ICE commanded our headlines. I chopped and sizzled garlic and onion, started simmering the beans I’d soaked last night. Urgent, anxious, I had to something, anything, but what? Soup; a big pot of bean soup.

Consider that soup, humble and comforting has been nourishing people in hard times through centuries. Whether its Italian Ribollita, Appalachian Pinto Bean Soup, Mexican Frijoles Charros, Moroccan Harira, Indian Dal, simple bean soups are the ultimate struggle food. Inexpensive and nutritious and easy to make with whatever you have on hand, dried beans can feed multitudes. Make a big pot, call your friends. It’s soup.

Soaking and cooking dried beans is a ritual that connects me to cooks across the world and the generations of the women who taught me to cook. They relied on bean soups to feed their families when money and time were short. Accommodating and unfussy, beans are a gift to the cook. They create their own broth as they simmer away with aromatics as they become tender and creamy. Many of us think we don’t have time to cook beans from scratch or worry about how to spice them, etc. Forget what the old cookbooks tell you, here’s what to do:

Soak the beans overnight in plenty of cold water. Drain, return to the pot, add water, salt and aromatics, then simmer till done. If you forget to soak, just give them more time to simmer. (Pressure cookers like Insta-Pot can speed up the process). Hold off on adding tomatoes until the beans are nearly done (the acid tends to harden the beans a bit) How long to simmer? Until they’re firm on the outside and silky within; it’s your call.

Uniquely adaptable, beans are categorized as both protein and vegetable. They’re lower in calories than most animal proteins, loaded with healthy fibers and antioxidants, and contain no fat. They are the key to health and vigor if you don’t believe me, check out Dan Buettner’s work on what it takes to lead a long happy life: The Blue Zone Kitchen series https://danbuettner.com/books/ is chocked with wonderful recipes!

Powerful plant protein, beans are good for us AND our planet. They add much needed diversity to our farms requiring far few chemical fertilizers to grow. Plus, beans are “nitrogen fixers” that improve the soil’s fertility, prevent runoff into our rivers and lakes, capture carbon, and shelter pollinators. BTW our Northern Heartland farmers grow most of the country’s dried beans. North Dakota, Minnesota grow 65% of the nation’s crop, add nearby Michigan and Nebraska, for 87% of our bean supply.

Who doesn’t love a good soup for dinner, especially on nights when the wind rattles our windows, soups that taste even better the next day. Ribollita stretches soup even further layering a casserole dish with stale bread, soup and cheese, to bake into a bubbly soupy lasagna. The simple process of making soup from scratch helps me focus and just feel better. Whatever is simmering in your life, I add a pot of bean soup and stir up some good.

Bean basics:

- Put the beans into the pot and add enough water to cover them by about 4-inches.

- Set them off to soak overnight, drain

- Return to the pot and add water to cover by 4-inches.

- Add about 1 tablespoon salt to 1 pound of beans.

- Add aromatics to the pot – a few cloves of garlic, a small onion; bay leaf; herbs, a few peppercorns, plus a carrot, celery stalk, ½ onion (unpeeled), 3 cloves garlic (unpeeled).

- Do not add tomatoes or acids until the very end because they tend to harden the beans and slow their cooking. Add them after the beans have cooked.

- Set the pot over high heat, bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer until done. Start checking the beans after about 2 hours. They may take longer. They should be tender and creamy.

- Store the cooked beans in their broth in the refrigerator for up to a week or freeze.

- 1 pound dry beans = 5 to 6 cups cooked beans plus 2 to 3 cups stock.

- 1 can beans = 1 to 2 cups cooked beans (depending on size of the beans and the can … yes, you can use canned beans; they are just not as good!)

A Very Good Bean Soup with Moroccan Spices

Serves 4 to 6

This hearty, simple vegetarian stew begs to be fiddled with, so spice to taste. Hunks of squash add a sweet earthiness to the vibrant notes of Ras el hanout, a complex and aromatic spice blend. This Moroccan seasoning of cumin, coriander, turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and pepper, is well worth keeping on hand. Serve the fragrant stew with plenty of pita to sop up all the goodness.

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 medium onions, halved and sliced

3 cloves garlic, smashed

¼ cup chopped parsley

1 red pepper, seeded and cut into 2-inch pieces

1 cup peeled, cubed butternut squash, or sweet potato, or carrot

2 to 3 tablespoons Ras el hanout*

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

¼ cup tomato paste

2 cups bean or vegetable stock, more as needed

5 to 6 cups cooked pinto or white beans (see above)

1 to 2 tablespoons lemon juice, to taste

Pepitas for garnish

Chopped parsley for garnish

Film a large deep pot with oil and set over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, parsley, red pepper, squash, Ras el hanout, and season generously with salt and pepper. Stir the vegetables with the spices and cook until fragrant, about 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and stock, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the squash is tender, about 15 minutes.

Stir in the beans and lemon juice and continue cooking until the flavors have combined and the beans are heated through. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Serve garnished with the pepitas and parsley.

· Substitute Ras el hanout using 2 teaspoons ground cumin, 1 teaspoon coriander, 1 teaspoon paprika, 2 teaspoons ground ginger, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg, generous pinch cayenne or clove.