Since the season of soups is upon us (a.k.a. winter is coming), we decided to make a Chilean style navy bean soup. It’s inspired by Chilean flavors and the dish Porotos Granados. This soup is delicious and comforting, it has that nice velvety feel from the soft beans which complements the savory & sweet broth.
If you haven’t soaked your beans yet, do so now, and we’ll try again tomorrow. Don’t forget to add some baking soda to get the beans extra soft. If you have, we can continue with the preparation. Peel and dice your onions and pumpkin and saute them on medium- low heat in a big pot. Season with sweet paprika and stir. Let them cook for about 10 minutes and for the meantime shuck your corn, but don’t throw away the cobs, we’ll need them! Strain and rinse your soaked beans and set them aside.
When the onions and pumpkin are ready, add the corn kernels, cobs and the navy beans. Add boiling water and season with dried oregano. Don’t add salt yet, we’ll do that at the end when the soup’s ready. Stir everything and close the lid. Cook on low heat for an hour and twenty minutes, until the beans are nice and soft. Now, season with salt and turn the heat off. Take out the corn cobs and serve.
P.S. – If you like couscous with soup, or soup with couscous, this is the perfect soup for that. Highly recommended.
Chilean Navy Bean Soup
Ingredients
- 1 cup navy beans, soaked overnight with 1 tsp baking soda
- 500 gr pumpkin
- 2 yellow onions
- 2 corn ears
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 heaped tsp sweet paprika
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- 3 tsp salt
- 10 cups boiling water (or vegetable broth if you have it)
Instructions
- Add vegetable oil into a big pot.
- Peel and dice your onions and add to the pot.
- Set the pot on medium- low heat.
- Season with sweet paprika and stir.
- Peel and dice your pumpkin and add it to the pot. Stir everything well.
- Saute the onion and pumpkin for about 10 minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients.
- While the onion and pumpkin are cooking, shuck your corn and set aside the kernels and the cobs.
- Strain and rinse your soaked navy beans and set them aside.
- When the onions and pumpkin are ready, add the corn kernels and cobs and the strained navy beans.
- Add the boiling water (or broth) and season with dried oregano. Don't season with salt yet! We'll do that at the end, when the soup's ready.
- Stir, close the lid and cook on low heat for an hour and 20 minutes, until the navy beans are very soft.
- Season with salt and stir well. Turn off the heat, and serve. Don't forget to take out the corn cobs.
- We love this soup over some couscous.
Notes
- In a pinch, you can use frozen corn instead of fresh. It's not going to be perfect, but it'll work.
