Slow Simmered Bean Soup with Mint and Pasilla Chile

This was good, really good but that’s all I can remember about it. One of the problems with food blogging (for me at least) is that often, once I’ve committed my thoughts and feelings about a dish to the page and hit submit is that I tend to forget the finer details, safe in the knowledge that I can refer back to the post. That only works if I write the post soon after I’ve eaten the dish and of course I didn’t with this and my brain is a little tired from all the summer holiday fun I’ve been having.

I can remember is that the combination of coriander and mint was unusual and a little challenging to begin with but really good after the first couple of mouthfuls. It tasted pretty good without the mint too so if that’s not your thing then you can skip it and still end up with a tasty bowl of soup. The chilli oil was brilliant and lifted the already-good soup into something brilliant. I think this would work with lots of different dishes, particularly soups but also just added to fish or chicken.

Slow Simmered Bean Soup with Mint and Pasilla Chile
Serves Two

1 cup beans
2 cups chicken stock
2 garlic cloves
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 tin tomatoes
2 dried chillies (I used ancho, the book specified pasilla), stemmed and seeded
Olive oil
1/2 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon oregano
Salt
Handful coriander, chopped
Handful mint, chopped
Cheese, to garnish

Simmer the beans in the chicken stock for an hour or until cooked.

While the beans are simmering, roast the garlic in a dry pan, turning occasionally until blackened and soft – about 15 minutes. Once cool, remove the skins and finely chop.

Fry the onions until medium brown and soft – about 7 minutes.

Add the garlic, onion and tomatoes to the beans and simmer for about 30 minutes until the beans have softened right down.

While the soup is simmering, cut the chillies into 1/8 inch slices. Heat the oil over a medium heat, add chillies and the oregano and stir for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and add the vinegar, 1.5 tablespoons of water and a little salt. Leave to stand for half an hour, stirring occasionally.

Just before serving, add some water to the beans to bring the soup to the consistency of a medium-thick bean soup. Stir in the coriander and mint, tast and season with salt. Ladle into bowls, top with the chilli oil and cheese and then serve.

This is based on the recipe in Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen but I didn’t follow all his measurements exactly and I used tinned tomatoes instead of fresh.