Name: White bean and chorizo soup
Prep time: 30 min
Ingredients: 1 baseball sized Onion. peeled and thinly sliced; 1 link Dry Cured Chorizo Sausage, diced; 2 cloves Garlic, peeled and sliced; 1/2 ea Red bell pepper, sliced; 20 ea Green beans, ends trimmed and cut into thirds; 1 ea Tomato, diced; 1 can White beans, drained; 1 L Chicken Stock; 1/2 tsp Chili Flakes; 2 tbsp Olive Oil; 4 ea Eggs, broken into a shallow bowl

Stone Soup

There once was a hungry wanderer. One day this wanderer found himself in a small village in the northern mountains of Portugal. The wanderer wandered his way to the center of town and set up a small camp. He lit a small fire on top of which he set a large pot filled with water and one stone. He then sat back waited, and watched the villagers walk by.

Eventually one of the villagers stopped and asked him "What are you doing?" The wanderer replied "I'm making stone soup." What's stone soup?" asked the villager. "Well it's only the best soup there is. I'd share it with you but its just missing some onions." The villager wanting to try this stone soup ran off returning a few minutes later with a bunch of onions.

The wanderer continued to sit by his pot of water, stone and now onions, until he was approached by another villager. "What are you doing?" asked the local. "I'm making stone soup." responded the wanderer. Again the villager asked what it was. "Well, it's only the best soup there is." replied the wandered. "I'd share it with you but it's just missing some meat." Off ran the villager to get the meat for the soup.

This continued until the whole village had contributed to what had become a very hearty pot of soup. The wanderer shared the soup with the villagers just like he said he would. Then he wandered off to the next town with a full belly a pot and a stone.

Our Soup

This story, or a variation of it, exists in lots of different places. I first heard it while travelling in Portugal with my wife a few years ago. The soup we had then, that went along with the story is very similar to the soup that I make in this post. It is a nice light yet hearty soup that is great both for warm summer evenings and cold winter nights. I love it and I hope you do to.

Let's take a look at how to

7:40 pm - Onions

I started cooking at 7:40 pm. Like in the story the first thing I had to do was get the onions cooking.

I first cut off the top and bottom of the onion and then cut it in half down the middle. Next up was to peel the onion and then thinly slice it along the grain.

While I was slicing the onion I had my pot preheating over medium heat. Once it was hot I added 2 tablespoon olive oil along with the sliced onion.

7:44 pm - Chorizo

As the onion was cooking I went to work on the chorizo. I only used half a link which is about the equivalent of one standard sausage. Also, the chorizo I used was dry cured not fresh.

I cut the chorizo into quarters lengthwise and then diced those into pieces about 1 cm x 1 cm. I added this to the onions.

7:46 pm Red Pepper and Garlic

By 7:46 the onions were slightly softened and the chorizo had gone into the pot. It was time to take care of the garlic and red pepper.

I first cut the ends off the garlic. Then I gently crushed it under the side of my knife and pulled the peel off. All the was left was to thinly slice it.

For the red pepper I cut off the top and bottom. Then I sliced through one side of the pepper. I put my knife inside the pepper and cut the ribs free while unrolling the pepper. This allowed me to take the seed pod out in one piece without making a big mess. This also prevented me from wasting any pepper.

I set half the pepper aside and diced the other half along with the top and bottom.

7:50 pm Add Garlic and Chilis

Once I was done cutting the pepper I turned the heat down slightly on my pot and added in the sliced garlic and about ½ teaspoon of chili flakes.

7:51 pm Dice Tomatoes

Next up was to dice a tomato.

First, I cut it in half down the center, took out the stem, and then diced it. I add this to the pot.

7:54 Green Beans/Chicken Stock

At 7:54 pm I added the red peppers to the pot. While they were cooking I trimmed off the ends of about 20 green beans and then cut them into thirds. Once the beans were cut I added 1 L of chicken stock to the pot. I put the lid on the pot, cranked the heat up to high and waited for the soup to boil.

7:58 pm - Drain Beans

At 7:58 I opened up a can of white beans and drained them. I also chopped up some parsley.

8:00 pm Boiling Soup

At 8:00 the soup was boiling so I added in my green beans and white beans. I put the lid back on the pot and started cracking four eggs into a shallow bowl.

At 8:04 I lowered the heat on the soup to a simmer, removed the lid form the pot and gently poured the eggs in one at a time. I put the lid back on the pot and let the eggs cook for three minutes.

8:07 pm Finishing

At 8:07 I tasted and adjusted the seasoning of the soup with a bit of salt. I plated the soup with a poached egg in the middle and garnished it with a bit of chopped parsley. And that was that.

Conclusion

Being able to put a soup like this together in such a short amount of time is a great trick to have up your sleeve. You won't believe how much flavour there is in that bowl. Most of that comes from the smoky chorizo and a little bit of sweetness from those peppers. This one is an absolute must try.

Thank you as always for reading. I'll see you on Wednesday!