Here’s a meal that is warm and filling, and won’t break the bank. More than likely, it will make a second meal – freeze the left overs for some night when you don’t feel like cooking.
You will need:
2 pork chops
1 dry cup of sugar beans (red speckled beans), soaked overnight
Three carrots – grated
One onion, finely chopped or grated
Two – three potatoes (depending on size) grated
One clove of garlic (or one heaped teaspoon crushed garlic)
Two bay leaves
Half a 50g packet tomato paste
Half a teaspoon of basil
Half a teaspoon of thyme
Half a teaspoon origanum
Two beef stock cubes – to taste. (I sometimes find that I need two and a half to three, but for goodness sake, check before adding more!)
Around three litres of water – my pressure cooker holds 4.5 litres, and I use the water to fill the pot once all the ingredients are in.
Here’s the part where your kitchen gadgets come in handy – I normally grate all the vegetables with my food processor, throw everything in my pressure cooker, and when I get home from work, supper is done! For those of you who don’t have a pressure cooker, here are the steps:
- Rinse the beans and soak overnight. Alternatively, you can place it in a pot, bring to the boil. Once the pot is boiling, turn off the heat and allow the beans to soak for one hour.
- Place grated vegetables and meat in the pot, add water to fill and bring to the boil. Simmer for around two hours, or until the beans are soft and the meat falls from the bones.
- Serve with crispy rolls, bread, pita bread or even over mielie pap.
I normally have around two litres of soup left over, so I freeze for another meal.
*** The pork chops can be substituted with beef, or even bacon. Using the pork chops means you can leave out the spek (pork fat) that is traditionally put in this soup. I have found that the soup tastes better with pork, and this is a cheaper meat. Sometimes, when we have some extra, I throw in some bacon for extra taste.
***my mother in law makes this soup by adding oxtail soup when the soup is done and allowing it to simmer for ten minutes. Personally, not a huge fan of oxtail soup, so I leave it out.
***to make the soup more nutritious, I normally use bone broth as my base in place of water, but I realise not everyone has bone broth or uses it.