Description

A creamy bean soup that is thickened with rice with lots of rich deep bean flavor! This soup is accompanied with tostones (Double Fried Green Plantains).

Scale

Ingredients

Beans Preparation:

1 pound of frozen or fresh pigeon peas, rinsed
1 teaspoon lite salt or to taste
8 cups of water

Soup Preparation:

2 tablespoons annatto oil
4 ounces of ham (if you are vegan or vegetarian, omit the ham)
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
3 chopped ajies dulces (sweet peppers – you can substitute with cubanelle peppers)
3 minced garlic cloves
½ cup of chopped onions
½ cup of chopped green peppers
3 sprigs of chopped cilantro
2 teaspoons lite salt or to taste
1 culantro (recao) leaf, chopped (if you don’t have culantro then increase the amount of cilantro to 6 sprigs)
1 pound cooked pigeon peas (above)
6 cups of bean liquid (liquid from cooked pigeon peas above)
½ cup of long grain white rice, rinsed

Instructions

Pour 8 cups of water in a 4-quart saucepan and bring the water to a boil.
Add salt and the pigeon peas. Stir and reduce heat to medium. Cook until the pigeon peas are tender. Cover saucepan with lid.
Remove the cooked pigeon peas and place them in a bowl. Make sure you reserve all the liquid in another bowl to use later.
Heat 2 tablespoons of annatto oil over medium heat in a 4-quart saucepan.
Add all the ingredients for the soup into saucepan except the bean liquid and rice. Mix all the ingredients until well blended and sauté for 5 minutes.
Pour the 6 cups of the liquid that was separated from the cooked beans and bring the liquid to a boil.
Add the rice and stir rice well into liquid. Bring the liquid to a boil.
Reduce heat to medium and cook until the rice is tender and the soup thickens to your liking.

Notes

If you don’t want to prepare the annatto oil, heat 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil with 1 seasoning envelop with coriander and annatto.

You can also use 2 cans (15 ounces each) of pigeon peas. Make sure that you drain the liquid from can into a large measuring cup and add sufficient water to measure 6 cups

Category: Soups
Method: Simmering
Cuisine: Puerto Rican

Keywords: asopao, asopao de gandules, stews, soups, pigeon peas,