Cuban Navy Bean Soup

Submitted by Bitsie

"This recipe belongs to my Aunt Rose. She was a neighbor friend of my mothers and taught Mom to make this soup 40 years ago. Somewhere along the way I learned to make it too. Warm and hearty, a fairly healthy soup."

 

• Ready In: 2hrs 15mins
• Ingredients: 14
• Serves: 8

ingredients

• 1 cup navy beans, soaked
• 2 1⁄2 quarts water
• 1 bay leaf
• 1⁄4 cup olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cups tomatoes, chopped
• 1 medium potato, diced
• saffron thread
• salt and pepper
• 1⁄2 teaspoon cumin
• 1 cup cabbage, shredded
• 1 cup butternut squash, diced
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

directions

1. Drain beans, combine with water& bay leaf& simmer 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
2. Add additional water if necessary.
3. In a skillet, heat olive oil& cook garlic& onions 6 minutes.
4. Add tomatoes& cook for 10 minutes.
5. When beans are tender, add tomato mixture, potato, saffron, salt, pepper, cumin, cabbage& squash& cook for another 30 minutes.
6. Add more water and stir as necessary.
7. Serve garnished with parsley.

Reviews

[michele morgan]

Very Good. It worked well without stock and was good the way it was, but I decided to pump up the nutrition a little and added some fresh spinach and it was very good that way too.

 

[carole in orlando]

Oh this is so good on a chilly day! I added extra butternut squash instead of potatoes, Bizol spice instead of saffron, and cumin seeds that I heated with the onions and garlic. I served it with Bev's Creamy Rye Bread and it was just perfect. Thanks, Carole in Orlando

 

[moramor]

Absolutely delicious soup...I'm very picky about soup, and this one is a winner. Usually I think soups need some type of stock, but this one does not...extremely flavorful and full-bodied. I actually found this exact recipe on a different site...I think it's a site called the Soup Lady...I had everything in stock, so I thought I'd try it. I tripled the recipe because I like to make large soup batches. I was out of fresh tomatoes, so I had to use crushed tomatoes..they seemed very rich, so in my triple recipe, I only used two cups of the crushed maters, and that worked out well...a little pinkish in the broth, but not over tomato-y. I didn't have saffron, and upon tasting, I decided that it still needed "something" so I added 1 tsp of fennel seeds, and quite a bit of salt. That did the trick! This is a rustic soup...I think you can play with the quantities. I added more white potatoes and more cabbage than it called for, because I needed to use some up. I also used two types of squash to make up the total..butternut and hubbard. Any yellow winter squash would be just fine. The soup was even better a few hours later, so it will probably be one of those that will taste better the 2nd day. For dinner, I made some Italian Sausage meatballs (which have fennel) and put the meatballs in each bowl with the soup. That kept my hubby happy, as he's a meat eater. It was wonderful.