Customer: Waiter, what do you call this soup?
Waiter: It’s bean soup, sir.
Customer: I don’t care what it’s been. What is it now?
It’s an old joke, and when I made bean soup for lunch I knew that I would be hearing it soon, as it’s one of Julia’s favourites. Here, in case you need one, is an explanation. It’s an explanation of the grammar relating to the joke. There is no explanation of why two white-haired adults ended up giggling into their soup at lunchtime. I suppose we have never really grown up.
Bean Soup
It starts with onions, garlic, red pepper and cajun paste. Stir them up and soften them. Add a can of chopped tomatoes and a can of water. Simmer, stir, blitz. Add beans and more red pepper bits and simmer again. Eat. It’s not a complicated recipe, but it’s handy as it is filling enough not to need a sandwich with it.
It’s OK, considering that it uses little more than a can of tomatoes and half a can of red kidney beans. It’s cheap and tastes surprisingly good. I’m sure it could be better, and you could use better ingredients, but it’s OK. Next time I may use the whole can of beans. The half can is fine, and filled us up, but now I have to do something inventive with the other half.
Bean Soup with pumpkin seeds – my attempt at being healthy and sophisticated
We had sausages and oven-roasted vegetables for tea. The leftover soup made very acceptable gravy.
As you can see from the photographs, I tried to decorate it a bit, as it looked a bit dull and none of the beans showed on the photos. I’m not actually sure what some of the bits were that are showing in the photo. I had this problem before when trying artistic swirls of yoghurt or cream in soup. Someone told me to let it go cold before swirling, but that defeats the object of making soup.
The second attempt at decoration used the crushed bits from a packet of tortilla chips. They were no more successful. I may stop trying.
Bean Soup with tortilla chip bits – my doomed final attempt at being sophisticated
This was going to be the second Wednesday post and refers to Wednesday. Like so many of my good intentions, it ended up as the first post on Thursday. I fell asleep watching Outback Opal Hunters.
Round oyster crackers might be an easier way to decorate the soup. They can be carefully placed and will float.
I may have to buy tweezers!
Your soup recipes are always wonderful. And the picture with the pumpkin seeds is quite sophisticated and lovely to my eye. The best bit was the thought of Julia and you giggling over your lunch. Adorable.
I don’t think anyone has called me adorable before. Even Julia doesn’t go that far and she is a woman with notoriously low standards in men. However, I won’t argue about it. 🙂
I did try to make my own pumpkin seeds last winter but after ages cleaning them I left them in the oven too long.
To an American, this might not make a lot sense as we pronounce “been” like “ben.” However, I watch a lot of British TV so I knew exactly what you meant. I love the idea of two white-haired adults giggling into their soup, which, by the way, looks delicious.
Thank you. You Americans are confusing. How do you pronounce “ben”?
Ben. 😉
Curiouser and curiouser . . .
Oh, we Americans. 😉
At least you have lobster . . .
This looks good, but you must be careful when opening a whole can of beans
Tee-hee!
Julia says that me being full of beans is preferable to me being full of my normal contents. I think she may be employing sarcasm . . .
Maybe
As my old father would have said, “Just eat your soup and stop playing with it.”
🙂 He isn’t wrong. 🙂