BULGARIAN BEAN SOUP (BOB CHORA)
This delicious and full of aromas vegan bean soup with melt-in-the-mouth beans and root vegetables is a classic Bulgarian dish, known as Bob Chorba or Monastery Bob Chorba. It makes a simple hearty comfort meal, rich in fibre and low in calories. This traditional soup has been a favourite staple food in Bulgaria for centuries. It’s a wonderful budget-friendly and nourishing dish.
HISTORY OF BULGARIAN VEGAN BEAN SOUP (BOB CHORBA).
Bean soup (Bob chorba) is believed to have originated in Medieval Bulgarian Monasteries. Monks and nuns grew beans and root vegetables on the grounds of the monasteries and bean-based soups and casseroles were a staple on their menu.
Traditionally, the soup is cooked in a deep clay pot on a live fire.
The Bulgarian name of the soup bob chorba literary translates as bean soup. Bob means beans in Bulgarian, and chorba is an adopted Turkish word which means soup. During Ottoman rule in Bulgaria, many Turkish words entered the Bulgarian language and are used in dialects or traditional dishes today.
RECIPES WITH BEANS ON MY BLOG:
HOW TO MAKE BULGARIAN BOB CHORBA?
📋 INGREDIENTS IN THE BEAN SOUP
Soup Vegetables: This classic recipe from Bulgarian cuisine is made with dry beans, spring onions, yellow onion, tomato, 1 red sweet peppers (or 1-2 mild red chillies) and carrots. The vegetables add flavour and texture in the soup. In some recipe variations, the carrots are substituted with potatoes.
Garlic: You must love garlic to enjoy this recipe. It calls for a lot of garlic. If you do not like garlic that much, use less garlic but do not omit it completely. Garlic elevates the flavours in the soup.
Spices: The authentic recipe calls for spearmint and sweet paprika. You can use fresh or dried spearmint but make sure to add them at the right time. As a rule of thumb, dried herbs are added to the dish much earlier because they need time to release their flavour. Fresh herbs are added toward the end. They cook quickly and can get mushy if added too early. Everything tastes better with savoury spice. If you have some at home, add half a teaspoon as well.
Oil: Traditionally, the recipe is made with cooking oil. However, I prefer to use virgin olive oil for it’s flavour.
Stock: Use the stock from the beans.
Chilli: If you like heat, add 1-2 grilled chillies to the soup or served it with pickled chillies. View my recipe Easy Pickled Chillies with Dill.
📖 STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS
STEP 1: PREPARE THE BEANS
If you are making the soup with dry beans:
Clean and soak the beans in a large bowl with water overnight, or, if you are short on time, for at least for 4 hours. When the beans are nearly doubled in size, they are ready for cooking.
Next, you need to remove the toxins in the soaked beans. These toxins can cause bloating and even more serious stomach problems.
How to remove the toxins from beans?
To remove the toxins from the beans, place the beans in a large pot and pour just enough tap water to cover the beans with about 1 inch of water. Bring the water with the beans to the boil. Pour out the boiling water in your sink and replace it with fresh water. Repeat this 2-3 times.
Next, pour 2.5 litres of fresh water into the pot with the beans and bring it to the boil. This time, reserve the stock to use in the soup.
If you are using canned beans, skip the steps above.
Step 2: Make the bean soup
Sauté the onions in the olive oil until translucent. Then, add the garlic and the rest of the chopped vegetables and sauté them for a couple of minutes. Last, add the beans, dry spices and the reserved bean stock. Reduce the heat and let the stock and the vegetables simmer for 20 minutes.
step 3: Add the fresh spices, tomato and SPiCES
When the beans are soft, add the chopped lovage. If you are using fresh spearmint, add it now a too. Simmer the soup for 10 minutes before adding the chopped tomato. Season the soup with salt and cook for extra 10 minutes.
Step 4: Add the thickening agent to the soup
In this recipe, the thickening agent is a mixture of sauteed flour and sweet paprika.
To prepare this mixture, heat a tablespoon of oil or butter in a small pan. Add 2 tablespoons of plain flour and stir continuously for a couple of minutes until the flour changes colour slightly, then add the sweet paprika. Stir and sauté the paprika for 30 seconds. Be careful not to burn the paprika because it will become bitter.
For a gluten-free option, use gluten-free flour in the thickening mixture.
In a small bowl, whisk the thickening mixture with 5-6 tablespoons of soup stock until combined well. Break all lumps of flour in the mixture before adding them to the soup.
The thickening mixture not only makes the soup thicker but brings beautiful smoky aromas into the soup.
🍲 SERVE THe BEAN SOUP
Bean soup must be served piping hot. Garnish your bowl of soup with chopped fresh parsley and cracked black pepper. You can also add a few drops of red wine vinegar or lemon juice to you soup.
For meat lovers, serve bean soup as a side dish to grilled meat or barbecued ribs.
Enjoy! 👨🍳👨🍳👨🍳
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Bulgarian Bean Soup – Bob Chorba
Equipment
- 1 heavy-bottomed pot
- 1 small pan
Ingredients
For the soup
- 2 cans large beans cannelloni or butter beans work best
- 1 large carrot cut into medium-sized cubes
- 1 medium yellow onion diced
- 10 garlic cloves cut into large chunks
- 2 red chillies or 1 sweet red pepper, diced
- 4 spring onions finely sliced
- 1 large ripe tomato cut into small cubes
- 1 bunch lovage chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon chilli flakes
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 litres stock
- 1 tablespoon dried spearmint or a small bunch of fresh spearmint
- salt and pepper for seasoning
For the thickening agent
- 60 ml olive oil
- 1 tablespoon plain flour
- 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
Instructions
- To make the soup with dry beans, soak the beans overnight and change the water a few times when boiling the beans to remove the toxins in them. Simmer the beans for 1-2 hours until they are nearly soft. Keep the stock. Alternatively, use canned beans.
- Heat a couple of teaspoons oil and sauté the chopped onion for a couple of minutes in it until they are translucent. Add the chopped garlic, carrots, red sweet pepper (or chilli) and spring onion. Sauté the vegetables for a few minutes, then add the par-cooked beans, stock and all dry spices to the pot. Reduce the heat and let the soup simmer for 20 minutes.
- Drop the chopped lovage in the pot with the soup. If using fresh herbs, chop them and add them to the soup too. Let the soup simmer for 10 more minutes with the fresh herbs, then add the chopped tomato. Season with salt and let the soup simmer for further 10 minutes.
- To make the thickening mixture, heat 60 ml of oil in a small pan. Add the flour and sauté it for a couple of minutes. Stir continuously. Add the sweet paprika and sauté it with the flour for 30 seconds. Stir. Add a few spoonfuls of stock from the soup to the pan with the flour. Break any lumps of flour left, then transfer the thickening mixture in the soup. Stir to combine and simmer the soup for final 2-3 minutes.
- Garnish the ready bean soup with freshly cracked pepper and chopped fresh parsley and serve it hot.
