Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Portuguese Bean Soup

Back a few months ago when I had a girls' weekend in Kauai, I had a bowl of Portuguese bean soup, a Hawaiian dish, from a local restaurant.  I'd never tried it before, but I ended up really enjoying it!  I knew that it would be a great comfort food that Mr. L would love, so I definitely wanted to try to recreate it at home.  Thankfully Allrecipes was able to come to the rescue once again!

This is a wonderful, hearty soup that is perfect for chilly days.  The broth is very flavorful and all of the veggies make for a great variety of textures.  It's actually quite simple to make, but it does take a while since it does a lot of simmering.

After making this dish a couple more times, though, I do recommend three things.  One -- you can use pretty much any type of sausage you want.  I recently used Conecuh sausage and it was super tasty!  Two -- pan-fry your sausage before hand.  I think it really makes a difference in the flavor of the soup!  And three -- if you're not so much of a cabbage fan like me, go ahead and reduce the original recipe amount of a 1/2 head of cabbage to 1/4 head like I did below.  That way the soup isn't overloaded with cabbage!

Go ahead and give it a try.  You won't regret it!  :)

Recipe adapted via Allrecipes.com


Ingredients [8 servings]
  • 1 ham hock
  • 2 10oz linguica (Portuguese) sausage
  • 1 onion, minced
  • 2 quarts water
  • 4 potatoes, peeled and cubed
  • 2 celery ribs, chopped
  • 2 carrots, chopped
  • 1 15 oz can stewed tomatoes
  • 1 8oz can tomato sauce
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/4 head cabbage, thinly sliced
  • 1 15 oz can kidney beans

Directions

Take your linguica sausage and cut into slices.  Pan-fry until sausage is crispy.


Place ham hock, sausage, onion, and water into a Dutch oven over high heat.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 1 hour.



Remove meat from ham hock, chop, and return to soup.


Stir in potatoes, celery, carrots, stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, and garlic.  Cover and continue simmering for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.


Stir in cabbage and kidney beans and cook until the cabbage has softened, about 15 minutes.



Spoon into a bowl and be sure to enjoy!



Have you tried Portuguese bean soup before or something similar?

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