AI-generated image
Ciorbă de fasole verde
Ciorbă de fasole verde: Transylvanian green bean soup with sour cream and dill
High summer in Transylvania means green beans by the basketful, and both Romanian and Hungarian households around Cluj and Târgu Mureș turn them into this pale, creamy, sour soup, which Hungarian cooks call tejfölös zöldbableves. Beans, potato and a little pepper simmer in a light tomato broth that is soured with vinegar, then finished off the heat with sour cream and a fistful of dill, so every spoonful is tangy, silky and fresh. Serve it hot for lunch with good bread, or with mămăligă for a thicker meal. The classic mistake is tipping cold sour cream straight into the boiling pot, where it curdles into flecks; temper it with hot broth first. Chef's tip: add the vinegar gradually and taste, as the soup should be bright but not sharp.
- Total time
- 40 min
- Difficulty
- easy
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil
- 1 onionfinely chopped
- 1 carrotdiced
- 1 red pepperdiced
- 1 ⅛ lb green beanstrimmed and cut into 3 cm pieces
- 2 potatoesdiced
- ¾ cup tomato passata
- 6 ¼ cups water
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 5 ½ oz sour cream
- 3 tbsp dillchopped
- 2 tbsp flat-leaf parsleychopped
Shop this recipe on Amazon
Spices & pantry
Fresh ingredients (8)
Links open Amazon in a new tab. As an Amazon Associate, WhatToEat.Today earns from qualifying purchases.
Method
0/6 doneStep 1: Heat the 2 tbsp sunflower oil in a large pan over a medium heat and soften the 1 onion, 1 carrot and 1 red pepper for 5 minutes, until the onion is translucent.
5 minStep 3: Add the 1 ⅛ lb green beans and ¾ cup tomato passata and simmer for 12–15 minutes, until the beans are tender but still bright green and the potato is soft.
14 minStep 4: Stir in half the 1 tbsp white wine vinegar, taste, and add the rest of the 1 tbsp white wine vinegar if you want it sharper.
1 minStep 5: Take the pan off the heat. Whisk the 5 ½ oz sour cream in a bowl with a ladle of hot broth until smooth, then stir it back into the soup; it should turn pale and creamy without curdling.
2 minStep 6: Stir in the 3 tbsp dill and 2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley and serve hot.
1 min
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 190 kcal
- Protein
- 5 g
- Carbs
- 22 g
- Fat
- 9 g
- Fibre
- 6 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does ciorbă de fasole verde take?
- About 40 minutes in total: 10 minutes to prepare and 30 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 4 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegetarian?
- Yes. It has no meat or fish.
- Is it gluten free?
- Yes, as written. Check the labels on stock, sauces and spice mixes, which sometimes contain gluten.
- What can I use instead of onion?
- 2 shallots per onion.
- What can I use instead of carrot?
- Parsnip or sweet potato, same weight.
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to cook it.
Rate this recipe
Sign in to rate and review this recipe.
You might also like
Soto Banjar
Along the rivers of Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan, breakfast often means soto Banjar eaten at a wooden riverside warung, sometimes after a dawn trip to the floating market. Unlike the turmeric sotos of Java, this broth is pale and clear, perfumed with the sweet spices that traders brought up the river centuries ago: cinnamon, cloves, star anise, cardamom and nutmeg. Shredded chicken, glass noodles, carrot and a boiled egg go into the bowl with rice cakes, and lime and a little chilli sharpen it at the table. Chef's tip: toast the whole spices in the pan for a minute before the paste goes in; it brings out their sweetness without the dusty edge of ground spice.
Indonesian
Sopa da pedra
Almeirim, a market town in the Ribatejo, is the capital of this soup; its restaurants serve it every day, and each bowl arrives with a clean stone at the bottom, after the folk tale of a friar who 'made soup from a stone' by talking villagers into giving him everything else. This is a pork soup: red kidney beans simmer with chouriço, morcela blood sausage and a piece of pork belly, then potatoes, carrots and coriander finish it into a thick, hearty bowl. Chef's tip: cook the sausages whole and slice them at the end, so they stay juicy and don't turn the broth greasy.
Portuguese
Miso soup
Miso soup (味噌汁) is drunk every day in homes all over Japan, at breakfast as well as dinner, beside a bowl of rice. The base is dashi; this vegan version uses kombu and dried shiitake instead of bonito, which gives it a deep, rounded flavour. Silken tofu and wakame seaweed are the classic fillings. It takes ten minutes; just remember not to boil the miso. Chef's tip: add the miso at the very end and never let it boil. Boiling kills the miso's fresh, fermented aroma; Japanese cooks say the soup should only 'smile', with the surface barely trembling.
Japanese