Green Bean Soup

I'm sure we all have several meals that we refused to eat as children but as we became adults, we somehow learned to enjoy them. This green bean soup is one such dishes for me. I used to hate it, but these days it's one of my favorite soups of all. Ones preferences certainly do change with time, ain't that true? :)

My green bean soup can be made both from fresh green beans and frozen ones, which makes it a soup you can enjoy all year round. The added potatoes and boiled eggs give it a rich flavor and texture that's characteristic for these type of soups. There are several variations of this soups being cooked around the world, the one I'm about to show you today is typical with it's sweet and sour flavor profile.

Let's make it.

Supplies

All the ingredients used in this green bean soup recipe are pretty common, you shouldn't have any trouble getting all of them, regardless of where you live. Let me list them one by one below:

500g (1 pound) fresh or frozen green beans

500g (1 pound) diced yellow potatoes

2 medium sized yellow onions

3 cloves chopped garlic

100g (3.5oz) diced smoked bacon

500ml (2 cups) whipping cream or half & half

3 bay leaves

2 tablespoons butter

salt & pepper to taste

1 pinch ground nutmeg

3 tablespoons all purpose flour

olive oil

1 liter (4 cups) chicken broth/stock

1 liter (4 cups) water

4-5 eggs hard boiled and sliced

fresh dill

Step 1: Start With the Base

Finely chop the onions and garlic first. Heat up the butter along with some olive oil in a pot and start sauteeing. Once the onions become translucent, add finely sliced bacon and sautee for about 5 or 7 minutes. This will give us enough time to work on the next step.

Step 2: Prepare the Green Beans and Potatoes

Since I'm using fresh green beans, they need some cleaning. Cut of the ends, then cut the remaining parts into bite size chunks about an inch long. You can use frozen beans too, in such case, feel free to skip this step.

Now is a good time to peel and cut the potatoes too. I like to use roughly the same amount of green beans and potatoes, but feel free to adjust this to your likings.

Step 3: Sautee the Green Beans and Potatoes

Add both the green beans and potatoes into the pot now and sautee them for about 5 minutes. This will improve the flavor and shorten the cooking time by a little bit.

Step 4: Add the Liquids and Seasonings

Green beans are not super flavor intensive, so we need to fix this with some broth or stock. I'm using chicken stock, but beef or vegetable would work great too. We need to add about 2 litres (8 cups) of liquids. I've used chicken stock and water in a 1:1 ratio, so 1 liter (4 cups) of stock and 1 liter (4 cups) of water.

Alternatively, you can use just broth/stock or plain water only. If you decide to go with plain water, I would recommend to drop in a bouillon cube to enhance the flavors.

Add 4 or 5 allspice corns, 3 bay leaves and a generous amount of salt and pepper. Both the green beans and potatoes will absorb quite a lot of salt, so do not try to hit the right amount just yet. Add a teaspoon at this point, we can always add more later on.

Cover the pot, bring the soup to a boil and simmer on low for about 30 minutes.

Step 5: Prepare the Eggs and Heavy Cream

While the soup is simmering, we have enough time to prepare the eggs. We need them hard boiled, so make sure they have enough time to cook fully. Once hard boiled, peel them and slice/cut into small pieces.

The next step is to mix 2 cups of whipping cream or half and half with 3 tablespoons of all purpose flour. We will need this in a few minutes. Use a whisk to make sure there are no lumps in the cream & flour mixture.

Step 6: Almost There

The soup has been simmering for about 30 minutes and both the potatoes and green beans should be almost fully cooked by now. This means it's time to add some more ingredients.

Add the cream & flour mixture first. Use a whisk to incorporate the mixture properly and prevent lumps from forming. Go on with the chopped eggs and a nice amount of finely sliced fresh dill.

Give the soup a stir and keep simmering for 5-10 more minutes.

Step 7: Final Seasonings

The soup is almost done, we just need a few more final touches.

First a pinch of nutmeg, then 5 tablespoons of sugar and finish it up with 4 tablespoons of white wine vinegar.

The amount of sugar and vinegar depends on your preferences so feel free to adjust these. Just keep in mind that the soup should be both sweet and sour and none of these flavors should dominate, they need to be well balanced.

Stir properly and give the soup a taste. You might need to add more salt at this point, it's almost always the case, because the potatoes and green beans tend to absorb quite a bit of salt.

Step 8: We Are Done

Once you are happy with the saltiness, give the soup 5 more minutes of simmer, to make sure all the flavors have a chance to distribute and we are done.

I'm serving this Green Bean Soup with fresh bread and a bit of extra dill on top. And that's it, we are done!