Year of the Bean

One of the new beans I discovered on my recent Kalustyan’s trip was the Swedish Brown bean, which they describe as a “Scandinavian heirloom bean, known for being extremely tender and hold together well, even though extended cooking. When cooked, yielding tender with nutty flavor and firm texture.” Sounds pretty good! But most of the recipes I’ve found focus on them as baked beans, with a lot of sugar or corn syrup – not what I’m feeling right now. So: a simple prep to start and be able to have them on their own, and then a soup with some nice heat and nutty potatoes to highlight the beans.

Ingredients – Beans

• 300g Swedish Brown Beans
• One medium onion, diced
• One clove garlic, minced
• One bay leaf
• Olive oil
• Salt

Procedure – Beans

1. Cover beans, onion, garlic, bay leaf, and olive oil with 2″ water; bring to a boil
2. Boil for 15 minutes, then lower to a simmer and simmer until softening, adding water if necessary
3. When beans are soft, add salt to taste and cook for a few more minutes; set aside off heat, with plenty of remaining bean broth

Ingredients – Soup

• 00g cooked beans
• 400g blue potatoes (mine are Magic Molly but Adirondack Blue or other varietals are also good), cut into 1/2″ cubes
• 1000 mL stock (I used veggie but if you have a good chicken stock, also good!)
• one pint crushed tomatoes (homemade is best but store-bought is okay)
• one onion, diced
• one red Bell pepper, diced
• one large jalapeño pepper, minced
• one hot pepper, minced
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 1 tsp. New Mexico chili powder
• 1 tsp. Mexican oregano
• Salt
• Fresh cracked black pepper
• Olive oil

Procedure – Soup

1. To save time and if you have enough stove space, you can start while beans are cooking – heat oil to medium in a large soup pot or Dutch oven
2. Add onion and peppers, and a bit of salt to help them sweat; cook until they begin to brown
3. Add chili powder, paprika, black pepper, and oregano; stir to combine
4. Add potatoes and a bit more salt; cover to sweat for a couple minutes, then uncover and cook until they begin to soften
5. Add tomatoes and stir to combine; cook down until the sauce starts to stick a bit
6. Add beans and stir to combine
7. Add stock, bring to a simmer, and cook another 15-20 minutes, until all are well-combined and desired consistency is reached; salt to taste
8. Enjoy on its own, over rice, or with cornbread!