White Bean Soup With Smoked Ribs 

A basic recipe from Transylvanian cuisine is white bean soup with smoked ribs. And especially with tarragon and sour cream, and served with red onion and fresh bread. Amazing!

This soup recipe is cooked especially in the cold period of the year, in winter, and is very nourishing. Most of the time, the soup was served as the main course, followed by cream cheese filling crepes.

This recipe has two basic ingredients, the beans and the smoked part.

In this version, I used white beans, but other types can be used as well, like kidney beans or pinto beans. And if you do not want to spend much time in the kitchen, you can use canned beans.

Similarly, instead of smoked ribs, there are many other options such as smoked ham, smoked sausage or smoked hack. They all have a special taste, the difference is in just their boiling time.

Let’s See How I Cook Step by Step the White Bean Soup With Smoked Ribs

For the beginning, I put about 750 g of white beans soaked in cold water. From this quantity, we can make about 6-8 servings of soup. This operation is necessary if we use dry beans, to reduce the boiling time.

I usually soak the beans one night before making the recipe. If you use canned beans, this is not necessary.

Let me tell you a trick. I soaked 1 kg of beans, from which after boiling, I extracted about 250 g, and from which I made a delicious salad with red onion, dill and olive oil.

I also used about 750 g of smoked ribs. The quantity used may differ, depending on the preferences of each one.

The ribs being whole, I cut them into smaller pieces, to fit better on a soup pot.

To keep the smoky taste from being too pronounced, I put the rib soaked in cold water for an hour.

The next step is to throw the water in which the bean was soaked and put it to boil. For this, I put the beans in a soup pot and I pour the cold water over it until it is well coated.

For the beans to be easily digestible, after boiling for about 10 minutes, pour the water on it. I pour over it another water, this time the hot water and repeat the operation.

After that, place the smoked ribs in the pot and let everything boil over medium heat, until the beans and ribs are done.

The boiling time depends on the type of beans used and can vary between 1.5 and 2 hours.

If you use canned beans, just put the smoked ribs to the boil, and put the beans only at the end.

Finishing the Soup

When the white beans are almost done, put a can of chopped tomatoes in the pot.

We are going to make a thickening of oil, wheat flour and paprika. You can find the thickening recipe step by step on the recipe page of smoked sausage potato soup.

My method of thickening the soup is to put the thickening in a sieve and mix in the soup until everything dissolves.

For this, you must first take the pot from the fire, and the soup does not boil.

Season with sea salt, freshly ground pepper, and vegetable mix. I boil for about 10 minutes, and at the end, I put a tablespoon of chopped tarragon.

If you do not have tarragon, you can replace it with parsley or dill.

Serving This Delicious White Beans Soup

In our family, it is served with sour cream and fresh bread, with a red onion salad.

I wish you a good appetite and I look forward to your comments on this recipe.

Tips

If using smoked pork heck or picnic, you can first boil the pork separately, and use the smoked water to boil the beans.

If you make white bean soup with smoked sausage, first boil the beans, and add the sausages to the middle of the boil