Name: Bob Chorba Bean Soup
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 100 min
Total time: 115 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Bulgarian
Ingredients: 350 g Dried white beans; 2 l Water; 200 g Onion; 150 g Carrot; 2 piece Red bell pepper; 300 g Ripe tomatoes; 50 ml Sunflower oil; 15 g Plain flour; 8 g Sweet smoked paprika; 6 g Dried summer savory; 4 g Fresh mint; 2 leaves Bay leaves; 12 g Fine sea salt; 2 g Ground black pepper; 15 g Flat-leaf parsley

About this dish

Bob chorba is the closest thing Bulgaria has to a national dish, and it is entirely vegan by accident rather than intention — beans were what a monastery or a poor kitchen had, and meat was for holidays. Its signature is chubritsa, summer savory, which is on every Bulgarian table in a shaker and gives the soup a peppery, almost thyme-like note nothing else replaces. The second habit worth stealing is dried mint, added at the end, where it reads as freshness rather than as mint.

Vegan
Lactose-free
Contains gluten because of Plain flour

Ingredients

4servings

350gDried white beans
2lWater
200gOnion
150gCarrot
2piecesRed bell pepper
300gRipe tomatoes
50mlSunflower oil
15gPlain flour
8gSweet smoked paprika
6gDried summer savory
4gFresh mint
2leavesBay leaves
12gFine sea salt
2gGround black pepper
15gFlat-leaf parsley

Instructions

Soak the beans overnight, drain, cover with fresh water with the bay, and simmer for 60 minutes until tender.
60 min
Tip: Change the water after soaking and never salt it now. Salt in the cooking water toughens the skins, and the beans will still be chalky an hour later while everything around them has gone to mush.
Fry the chopped onion, carrot and diced pepper in the oil for 8 minutes.
8 min
Tip: This is the zaprazhka, and it is where the soup gets its colour and depth. Boiled vegetables added raw to the pot would give a thin, pale broth.
Off the heat, stir the paprika and flour into the hot fat, then whisk in a ladle of the bean liquid.
2 min
Tip: Paprika burns in seconds at frying heat and turns bitter — take the pan off the flame first. The flour is a thickener, not a roux: a spoonful is enough to give the broth body.
Add the fried mixture and the chopped tomatoes to the beans with the savory, salt and pepper, and simmer for 30 minutes.
30 min
Tip: Salt only now, once the beans are already soft, and let the whole thing cook together — thirty minutes is what turns a pot of beans and a pan of vegetables into one soup.
Crush the dried mint between your fingers over the pot, add the parsley, and let it stand off the heat.
3 min
Tip: Dried mint, not fresh, and at the very end. Boiled for even a few minutes it goes flat and slightly medicinal, and the whole point of it is the lift it gives on the first spoonful.