Winter meal: Alubias de Tolosa

Let me please share a recipe with you. Today is the first of February and here in Finland is a proper winter, while this week we have warmer temperatures. At the moment the thermometer shows -5ºC, what is not that bad. Anyway, I decided to make a traditional winter meal for such a day. It is very easy, very healthy, vegetarian friendly and pretty cheap. The only problem is that it takes time, but you can leave it cook while you go for your duties. The meal in question is red bean soup at the style of "alubias de Tolosa", which is a quite common dish in the Basque cuisine, especially in the inner areas. Beans provide big amounts of protein and they are cheap energy resources. in Finland you can get imported beans from the US in places like City Market or Prisma, and they cost about 2,5euro 500g.

So this is how I do it Red Kidney Bean Soup á la Tolosa:

Ingredients for 4 people.

-250g of red kidney beans

-1 onion

-1 leek

-2 carrots

-two spoons of virgin olive oil

-some salt

-some paprika

-water

Price: 2,3 euro!!!!

The traditional meal includes also hard pork stuff such as chorizo sausage, bacon and blood sausage, but in this case we can skip it and our cardiovascular system will be happier.

Process:

1leave the beans soak overnight.

2. Wake up early and start the job. Chop all the vegetables into very small pieces and put them into a pot, add the beans, the salt, the paprika and the oil and cover the mix with water. There must be water enough to cover the food.

3. Put the pot into a fire, switch it on and wait until the water boils.

4. When you get the 100ºC, turn the fire until the minimum power, cover the pot and leave it cook for 4 hours. As I said in the while you can do your duties, but try to make sure there is enough water so as not to let the meal burn! Once it happened to me and you get the smell stuck on your nose for the rest of your life. Be careful, but remember that patience is quality.

After 4 hours of cooking, the beans have released their starch and this is simply delicious. serve warm and enjoy.

A perfect dish for the whole family. If the kids find the beans disgusting, you can always bend the mix and make a puree, it is also delicious.