Peruvian Bean Soup

Just documenting a nice bean soup I made tonight.

I bought 25 pounds of Peruano Beans, so figured I’d try them.

2 cups dry beans
1 yellow onion
1/8 lb. Bacon
3 small cloves garlic or 1 large
Couple of grinds from a pepper mill
Maybe 1/8 tsp. Italian Seasoning. I just sprinkled some on top.

Put the beans in a medium pot, cover with water 3 x that depth. Bring to the boil, then set aside for an hour.

Drain the beans and add water to just a bit over the top. Simmer, covered, for about an hour. May be less if the beans soften quickly. Optionally drain again if worried about gas… Beans ought to have just a bit of water over the top for the next step, maybe 2 cm.

While the beans simmer, make the fried bits.

In a frying pan, put a Table spoon of lard or bacon grease. Add the chopped onion and the bacon chopped into 1 cm wide strips across the slice width (I.e. cut across the slices at 1 cm intervals) Add the bacon to the onion and fry it all to brown some bits and make the onion clear.

Add the whole contents of the frying pan. Yes, the fat too. It really helps the beans. Add Italian seasoning, and the garlic chopped then crushed with the flat side of the chefs knife. Grind in some pepper and add salt to your liking. Likely about a teaspoon. Two if you like salt like I do ;-)

Raise to a simmer for a few minutes, turn it off, covered, and let sit an hour or so. You can eat it as soon as things are mixed, but it gets creamier, with flavors more nicely mixed, on standing.

Change-ups:

Traditionally tomato is used to give a bit of acid, but tomatoes make my joints hurt now. Feel free to add a crushed tomato or two, or ketchup. It might also improve things to add a bit of vinegar or lemon juice. I liked it just as it stands. Similarly, oregano or cumin can be added for more aggressive seasoning, along with peppers (browned as desired). A couple of Table Spoons of Sweet Bsby Ray’s BBQ Sauce makes for a very nice flavor kick.

Other stuff can be added, like small bits of carrot, celery, or other vegetables. Soup is a classic way to use up leftover vegetables. Dry pasta can be cooked and added (though it tends to soak up too much water and swell on long standing, so add it one meal at a time).

These beans are also called Mexican Yellow, mayocoba, Peruano, or Peruvian yellow beans. To me, they look sort of light lime greenish in the bag, but cook to a whiter color. They make a nice creamy bean when cooked. Any similarly creamy bean should work. Pinto, Cranberry, Great Northern, etc.

For Prepper Cuisine, use dried onion granules and dried garlic, and SPAM or canned ham dice instead of the bacon. Other cooking oils can substitute for the lard or bacon grease.

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