It's time for another bean soup! This one from Bulgaria is called bob chorba, which really just means "bean soup". The popular version of this dish is actually vegetarian, unlike many soups I come across for this project. It's called the "Monastery" version because it has been eaten at monasteries in Bulgaria.
I used Great Northern beans for this, which I soaked overnight and boiled until mostly tender before starting with the base of the soup: onion, garlic, and celery. After that sauteed for a bit, I added paprika and red pepper flakes.
Then came water to cover it all, and then the beans. I let that simmer for a while until everything was cooked.
And then I stirred in fresh parsley and mint. The mint definitely gave it an interesting flavor; it's not something I would have thought of in a European bean soup but it worked well to brighten the flavors a bit.
After stirring it all up really well, I used my immersion blender to break up some of the beans. I probably should have just pulled out a few ladles full and mashed them up with a fork, because this method blended it a little too much. I barely had any full beans left after pulsing a few times. Maybe my immersion blender is just too powerful.
Things got a little foamy on top from the blender, but this was the final product, which looks nothing like the pictures you get when you google bob chorba. According to Wikipedia, it generally includes tomato as a main ingredient, which my recipe was lacking. I also think there was way too much water called for. It was a little difficult to take good pictures of this soup, because I had to keep scooping beans to the top to be able to see what was in the bowl.
It ended up being a just-okay soup. The flavors were fine, but there was still something off with the proportions and the texture of the beans. I think if I had found a different recipe that looked more like most of the pictures you see, it would have been a different story. This recipe also made a huge pot of soup so I was stuck eating it several days in a row. Which wasn't the worst thing, but I probably would have enjoyed it more in a different version!
Recipes Used: Bulgarian Bean Soup
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