The first time I had Herenbone was at Marianas in Stanford. Mariana and her husband Peter are such charming characters, making you feel right at home from beginning to end. At this country kitchen Peter told us how special these beans were. These Lima beans only grow on the west coast of South Africa and directly translates as “Lord’s Bean”. There was only one website that had any information about these beans, give it a read here if you are interested.
So I bought a packet of these dried beans on a road trip to the west coast some time ago and have been baffled on how to use them. People from the west coast are without pretences, they are real, they are proud fishermen and farmers and are use to the hardships that living off the land brings. And this is why I wanted to keep the flavours simple. So when I saw my new foodie crush Akis making his Greek White Bean Soup I knew the Herenbone would be just the thing to use.
I made this soup in a slow cooker, I just love making any stew or soup in it as I don’t have to check on it constantly. I added potatoes to the soup as I like how it thickens the soup. I also made additional mini pork koftas with the soup. Lamb mince would also work amazingly but pork is cheaper than lamb in South Africa, so I opted for pork for this midweek meal. Its really nice to serve it in this way because often I don’t feel like meat but Jurie does.
Ingredients
Soup
olive oil
rosemary sprig chopped
2 garlic cloves chopped
1 1/2 cup of dried herenbone or any white beans
2 big carrots chopped in chunks
2-3 celery sticks chopped in chunks
1 onion chopped
2 potatoes cubed
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 whole red apple
1 chicken stock cube
1 1/2 litre water to cover
Pork Koftas
500g pork or lamb mince
1 tablespoon chopped rosemary
1 tablespoon chopped thyme
1 finely chopped garlic clove
salt and pepper
Recipe
To make the soup add oil, garlic, onion, rosemary, carrots and celery and saute for a few minutes. Then add the potatoes, beans, tomato paste, bay leaves, chicken stock cube and water. Season with salt and pepper. Lastly put a whole red apple in and set the slow cooker to slow cook high, which will take 4 hours. Just remember to discard the apple before serving, it is only used to sweeten the soup.
While your soup is cooking you have lots of time to make the koftas. Just mix all the pork kofta ingredients together and let it rest in the fridge for an hour. After it has rested and just before the soup is ready you can form the mince around kebab sticks.Brush with olive oil and grill on a medium to high heat in a griddle pan.
Serve your soup and koftas with crispy farm style bread, olives and feta.
Chopstix & Charcoal 