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Portuguese bean soup
Portuguese bean soup: Hawaiian kidney beans with smoked ham hock, pork sausage and vegetables in tomato broth
Portuguese bean soup came to Hawai'i with Madeiran and Azorean plantation workers in the late 1800s and is now an island staple, ladled out at church fundraisers, school lunch counters and Honolulu diners, especially when the trade winds turn cool. Kidney beans, a smoked pork ham hock and spicy Portuguese pork sausage (linguiça) simmer with potato, carrot, cabbage and tomato into a thick, smoky soup. Dried kidney beans must be soaked and then boiled hard for 10 minutes before the long simmer; never put them raw into a slow cooker. The usual mistake is adding the cabbage too early, so it turns grey; it goes in for the last 15 minutes. Slow-cooker option: after the hard boil, cook everything except the cabbage on low for 8 hours. Chef's tip: the soup thickens overnight, so make it a day ahead and loosen with a little water.
- Total time
- 150 min
- Difficulty
- easy
- Serves
- 8
Ingredients
- 14 oz dried red kidney beanssoaked overnight
- 1 smoked pork ham hockabout 800 g
- 10 ½ cups water
- 10 ½ oz Portuguese pork sausage (linguiça)sliced
- 1 onionchopped
- 3 cloves garliccrushed
- 2 sticks celerydiced
- 2 carrotsdiced
- 2 potatoesdiced
- 1 ¾ cups passata
- ¼ tsp ground allspice
- 1 bay leaf
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 9 oz white cabbageshredded
- 3 tbsp fresh coriander (optional)chopped
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Method
0/5 doneStep 1: Drain the 14 oz dried red kidney beans, put in a large pot with fresh water to cover by 5 cm, bring to the boil and boil hard for 10 minutes. Drain.
15 minStep 2: Return the beans to the pot with 1 smoked pork ham hock, 10 ½ cups water and 1 bay leaf. Simmer, partly covered, for 1 hour, until the beans are nearly tender.
60 minStep 3: Meanwhile brown 10 ½ oz Portuguese pork sausage (linguiça) in a frying pan for 5 minutes, then add 1 onion, 3 cloves garlic and 2 sticks celery and cook for 5 minutes.
10 minStep 4: Lift out the ham hock, pull the meat off in shreds and return it to the pot (discard skin and bone). Add the sausage mixture, 2 carrots, 2 potatoes, 1 ¾ cups passata, ¼ tsp ground allspice and ½ tsp black pepper and simmer for 25 minutes.
25 minStep 5: Add 9 oz white cabbage and simmer 15 minutes more, until the beans are creamy and the potatoes soft. The sausage should be 160°F. Taste before adding salt: ham and sausage are salty. Serve with 3 tbsp fresh coriander.
15 min
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 420 kcal
- Protein
- 28 g
- Carbs
- 42 g
- Fat
- 15 g
- Fibre
- 13 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does portuguese bean soup take?
- About 150 minutes in total: 20 minutes to prepare and 130 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 8 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Can I make it ahead?
- Yes. It keeps well, so you can cook it earlier in the day or the day before and reheat it.
- What can I use instead of onion?
- 2 shallots per onion.
- What can I use instead of garlic?
- ½ tsp garlic paste or ⅛ tsp garlic powder per clove.
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