Creamed Cranberry Bean Soup
Submitted by bobbye
Hearty Hungarian-style cranberry bean soup with kolbasz sausage, thickened with a bacon dripping roux and sour cream. Old-world comfort food that sticks to your ribs.
YIELD
1 batchPREP
1 daysCOOK
45 minREADY
1 daysThis soup has Eastern European grandma cooking written all over it, and that’s the highest compliment there is.
Dried cranberry beans soak overnight, then simmer low and slow with smoky kolbasz sausage, onion, and whole peppercorns until everything is tender and the broth is rich with meaty flavor.
A browned roux made with bacon drippings adds body, and the sour cream finish (tempered carefully so it won’t curdle) gives it that signature Hungarian tang and silkiness.
This is the kind of soup you make on a cold Saturday when the house needs warming up.
Kitchen Tips
- Soak the beans overnight; there’s no shortcut here if you want them tender all the way through.
- Brown the roux until it’s a deep golden color for the richest, nuttiest flavor.
- Temper the sour cream by adding hot soup to it one tablespoon at a time before stirring it back into the pot; dumping cold sour cream into hot soup will curdle it.
- Kolbasz (Hungarian smoked sausage) is key to the authentic flavor, but kielbasa makes a fine substitute.
Ingredients
Directions
Wash beans.
Soak overnight and cook with kolbasz in a soup kettle along with onion and salt and peppercorns to taste.
When beans and meat are cooked, make roux: Brown roux ingred. til brown in color and add 1 c. water; bring to a boil.
Add this to soup and cook about 5 minutes until soup comes back to a boil.
Take ½ pt. sour cream which is at room temperature.
Mix in 1 tb. flour to thicken. To sour cream, add hot soup, 1 tablespoon at a time, and mix well until cream is thinned, then add to hot soup (prevents curdling).
Bring back to gentle boil, then turn heat off.
what is "kolbasz"?
I just found this link from wikipedia, kolbasz is a Hungarian Sausage, check the link above you will know more information.