Making a soup is the most straight forward thing: You cut up the veggies, throw them in water, and cook them. Right? Well, there is a lot more to it, if you really want to take it to the top. One such way is something most Hungarians are familiar with, either from their mom, or grandmother, or one of their outings to the countryside. After all, most of our country is a village, or at least small town, even though the majority live in the capital. And that's where most Hungarians have memories of such an unforgettable peasant style bean soup...
The Veggies
Since it's a bean soup I went with the regular green beans, which just happened to be the inspiration to this dish from the comments to a previous recipe I posted a few weeks ago, which also used green beans. In addition you could also add other types of beans, which are truly abundant here in Mexico, but I tried to keep it as Hungarian as possible. What I was looking for were the yellow wax beans, but I couldn't find them.
A good soup should also have a potato and a carrot, and here I also tried to score the white and purple varieties of carrots, without success. So in this regard I stayed with the basics. Half a large onion and a few cloves of garlic, plus a nice bunch of fresh parsley for the end. That covers the vegges.
Seasoning - Heavy Seasoning
In other words, the meats. Hungarian bean soup is known for its smokey taste, so I cut up some smoked bacon and smoked chorizo. Since my paprika is also smoked, this should not be a point of concern, but in the end I did not think I went overboard. Yes, I know, in the picture all this meat looks quite decadent, but in the end it's all pretty even: a quarter kilo of bacon, a quarter of chorizo, half a kilo beans, a quarter of other veggies, plus all the water. I believe they are okay in their proportion.
The Secret Base
So what makes a bean soup so distinctly Hungarian peasant style? It's this procedure: I cut up the onions and garlic, throw them in the empty pot with a piece of butter, and when the butter is all melted I turn the heat down to a simmer, and cover the pot. Occasionally I check on it, give it a good stir, and let it simmer some more. When the onions have become glassy, I take the pot off of the heat, and cover everything with a handful of flour. Then I add the paprika. Then I pour boiling water over everything, not so much that it would cover it all, but almost. Now I give it a good stir, making sure that there are no lumps of flour. If there is not too much water, this should not be a problem.
Turn Up The Heat Again
Now that the base is made, it's time to throw in the harder vegetables, meaning the chopped potato and carrot. From here on it's a straight forward soup recipe. Add more water to make it nice and soupy. It's a good idea to have boiling water handy, so you won't have to wait for the water to heat up in the pot. Add salt and pepper and more paprika to get a good taste. Once the veggies are getting cooked nicely add the beans. Add more water as you need. Finally add the chopped parsley.
Don't Forget the Cream
Hungarians - and Mexicans - love sour cream. A soup is never complete without a few generous spoonfuls of sour cream. Some people like to mix it with four, but I've already added the flour in the beginning, so now I just add the cream, give it a final stir, and turn off the heat. That's it, the most delicious bean soup! The best thing about such a dish is that we won't finish it in the first meal. And each time I heat it up, the tastes just grow together more closely.
