Schnitt Bohnensuppe (Green Bean Soup) - Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 packet of pickled green beans (I got a packet from a company in Germany called Leidel. Ask your local supermarket or deli for possible products)
1 medium brown onion
8 firm new potatoes
1.5 l of stock (beef is best but vegetable stock is also good)
Salt and pepper to season
Method:
Drain and rinse the green beans in a sieve. Rinse them well and let all excess liquid drip off. This is really important or else the green beans will be too salty and taste bitter. While the beans are draining off, peal the onion and dice it into small pieces. Also peal the potatoes and chop them into bite size chunks.
Put the rinsed and drained beans into a large cooking pot and add the diced onion and chopped potatoes. Cover the vegetables with the stock and grind in some black pepper. Stir, cover and bring to the boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat and simmer the soup for 2 hours. Keep an eye on the consistency of the soup. If it is cooking to fast reduce the heat. Check the soup every 30 minutes and give it a stir.
After the 2 hours taste for seasoning. The soup should have a slight kick to it so a twist of black pepper at the end should set it off. Fertig! So einfach ist das.
Serve as a vegetarian dish if using vegetable stock with some crusty buttered bread or with frankfurters cut up into the soup if you fancy something with meat.
