Sugar Bean Soup
Aperçu
Sugar bean soup is a thick South African winter stew, closer to a bean and beef braise than to anything most people would call a soup. Speckled sugar beans, the mottled pink and brown beans that are a staple of South African cooking, are cooked down with bone-in beef chuck and a great quantity of onion until the beans break and the meat falls off the bone. It is home cooking rather than restaurant food, and it belongs to cold months and to households cooking on a budget. Beans and a cheap cut of beef, cooked long enough, produce something substantial out of very little, and South African families have been making versions of it for generations. What marks this particular version out is that it uses convenience products as seasoning: a packet of dry oxtail soup mix, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and a beef bouillon cube, alongside red wine and tomato paste. That is characteristic of a certain era and style of South African home cooking rather than a mark against it, and the packet soup mix does real work, thickening the broth as well as seasoning it. It is served with bread, and the bread is not optional.
Note de Patrimoine AFN
Sugar beans, the speckled beans used here, are a staple of South African cooking, and slow-cooked bean and beef stews of this kind belong to the country's domestic winter repertoire.
Ingrédients
Les mentions alimentaires sont fournies par les contributeurs à titre indicatif. Elles ne sont pas vérifiées par AFN et dépendent des produits que vous achetez. En cas d’allergie grave, vérifiez vous-même chaque ingrédient. Cuisine, allergies et votre propre jugement
Préparation
- 1
Put the sugar beans in a large container, cover with several inches of cool water and soak for 8 hours or overnight.
- 2
Combine the beef chuck and onions in a large pot over medium heat.
- 3
Cook until the beef is tender and falling off the bone, about 1 1/2 hours.
- 4
Transfer the beef to a cutting board, discard the bones and cut the meat into bite sized pieces. Put the onions in a bowl.
- 5
Pour the beans and their soaking water into the pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the beans are tender, about 1 hour, adding more water if needed.
- 6
Stir the beef and onions back in and bring the soup to a boil.
- 7
Dissolve the bouillon cube in the hot water in a bowl.
- 8
Stir in the red wine, tomato paste, dry soup mix, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and cayenne pepper.
- 9
Gradually mix this into the boiling soup, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes until the flavours combine.
Notes de l’Africook
- Soak the beans overnight without shortcuts. Sugar beans are dense and an unsoaked batch will still be firm after the meat has fallen apart.
- Cook the beans in their soaking water rather than draining it, as the recipe specifies. It carries flavour and colour.
- Bone-in chuck is the right cut. The bone is doing real work here, and boneless beef gives a noticeably thinner result.
- Add the packet soup mix gradually into boiling liquid while stirring, or it will go lumpy.
- It thickens considerably overnight and is generally better on the second day. Loosen it with a little water when reheating.
Questions fréquentes
What are sugar beans?
Sugar beans are the speckled pink and brown beans that are a staple of South African cooking, sold dried in most supermarkets there. They are similar to cranberry or borlotti beans, which substitute well, and to pinto beans at a push. The name refers to their appearance rather than any sweetness.
Do I have to use the packet soup mix?
Not strictly, but it is doing two jobs: seasoning and thickening. If you leave it out, expect a thinner result and compensate with more tomato paste and a little cornflour slurry. The use of packet mixes is characteristic of this style of South African home cooking rather than a shortcut someone added later.
Can I make it vegetarian?
Partly. The beans, onion, tomato and wine base works well on its own, but you would need to replace the beef bouillon, the oxtail soup mix and the Worcestershire sauce, all of which contain animal products. Use vegetable stock, a mushroom based thickener and a vegetarian Worcestershire, and accept it as a related dish rather than the same one.
How long does it keep?
Four to five days refrigerated, and it improves for the first two of them as the beans continue to break down and thicken the broth. It freezes well for three months. Reheat gently and add water, since it sets almost solid when cold.
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i was a bit doubtful about putting red wine and soy sauce inside bean soup, but my wife said we should follow it. soaked the sugar beans overnight as stated. Abeg the smell when the onions and beef chuck were simmering together was incredible, e sweet sha! took a bit longer than 165 mins for my beans to get properly soft though, make sure you start early o.
Couldn't find speckled sugar beans in my local supermarket so had to trek down to an ethnic grocery store on London Road for them. So glad I bothered though, using that dry oxtail soup packet alongside the red wine gives the gravy an unbelievable depth. Meat was completely falling off the bone after the 90 minutes.