Recipe: Cuban Black Bean Soup

When I was a kid, we lived in Miami, and we had a Cuban neighbor who I only remember as "Mrs. Garcia." She had arrived in Miami via boat from Cuba, and I don't know where she is now, but she gave my mother her recipe for black bean soup, which I still use to this day. So wherever you are, Mrs. Garcia, thank you for this recipe. It has ruined me for all other black bean soups; nothing I've had in Cuban restaurants matches up to this.

While the preparation time of this is short, the soup takes several hours to cook and the beans have to be soaked overnight, so I think this is best used as a weekend recipe, when you'll be home all day so you can stir and season the soup as it cooks.

Mrs. Garcia's Black Bean Soup
Ingredients
1 package of dried black beans - 1 or 2 pounds, your choice
1 onion
1 green bell pepper
3 cloves garlic
1 ham bone or smoked ham hock
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup white vinegar
Salt & pepper to taste

Preparation
The night before, place beans in a colander and wash them with cold running water. Pick out any rocks or beans that are broken or shriveled. Add the beans to a large soup pot with a lid and cover with enough cold water so that it reaches one inch over the top of the beans.

The next day, drain the water out of the pot and refill with clean cold water an inch off the top. Add the onion and pepper, chopped, to the pot along with the garlic minced or pressed. Add the bone, the olive oil, and the salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil. Skim off any foam, then reduce heat and simmer for 4 to 5 hours, covered, until the beans are soft and the soup is creamy, not watery. It shouldn't get dry and stew-y, but if it does, add a cup or so more water. The consistency should be velvety and it should coat the back of a spoon.

Add the vinegar and simmer for 15 minutes more. The vinegar is the secret ingredient; it makes the soup more creamy and gives it a little "tang."

Serve over rice (optional) and garnish with chopped raw onions and sour cream. Also, if you like, little bits of chopped chicharrónes can be garnished on top. Add some sweet fried plantains as a side dish!

Extra portions freeze very well.

(Image: Kathryn Hill)

Comments (23)

yum. In the pot this weekend!

Perfect. It's been a while since I made black bean soup. This even sounds a lot like my "just-keep-adding-more-stuff-to-the-pot-until-it-tastes-right" recipe! Granted, I usually end up with about 12 quarts of soup so I'll be taking this recipe to heart. Thanks Mrs. Garcia!

How much exactly is a package of dried beans? A pound? 12 ounces? I buy my legumes out of self-serve barrels so the package thing isn't helping me. This looks amazing, however, and I'm anxious to give it a try!

Yum. My wife and I used to go to the Winter Music Conference in Miami every spring and would hit the Cuban diners for black beans.

The best black beans I have ever made were in a pressure cooker. I like to add a healthy dose of cumin to mine also.

The basic package of Goya beans I buy is a pound. Try that or take a quick look at a few packages to get an idea. (I do wish it had said, but you'll probably be okay as long as you taste test it and modify to your liking!)

Can anyone offer any ideas on a vegetarian option or an alternative to the ham bone? I'm really looking for something to provide the same smoky flavor without the ham of course.

Thanks!

Liquid smoke, added at the end (no more than a teaspoon though) gives a similar flavor to the ham (not the same however.) It's how I've vegan-ized quite a few of my family's southern recipes.

This looks great!

Nephils, you may be able to substitute smoked paprika for the ham hock. I've heard of people using that in recipes in place of bacon.

Seconding the call here - Kathryn, what weight of beans should we be using? I currently have the first dried black beans I've ever bought sitting in a bag in the pantry, and this looks like a great way to try them...

I have lived in Miami for 5 years and have Cuban family and never heard of using pork product to season. The best (and most traditional) black beans always have red bell pepper in addition to the green, bay leaf, cumin, oregano, and olive oil.

Dippy question I know, but is it possible to buy a just ham
bone from a butcher?

Sorry guys, I've changed the post to reflect bean weight. You can use anywhere from 1 to 2 pounds.

And @kljimlace, yes, you can get it at a butcher.

An interesting variation on the more traditional with peppers and bay leaf... Am wondering, when you say:

"The next day, drain the water out of the pot and refill with clean cold water an inch off the top."

Do you mean cover the beans with 1 inch, or that the water should be about an inch below the beans??? Thanks!

Or also, for vegans/veggies--just add a nice dose of ground chipotle or chipotle in adobo for some smoky action. I also always add a lot of lime juice to my cuban bean soup.

Thank you Loki, Sarah and lotus...I thought about ground chipotle since I recently started using it in other soups and it does add that nice deep smoke flavor...but I will also experiment with the liquid smoke and smoked paprika...especially since the chipotle tends to add a lot of heat

For all those of you thinking this sounds good... you were right. I just made a pot and it was super easy and absolutely delicious!
I was skeptical of the vinegar, so I tasted it pre-vinegar (it was yummy), and then added in about half the vinegar and tasted it again to make sure it would be okay... and it was great! I added in the last bit, let it simmer, and couldnt wait to eat it.
Thanks for the recipe Kathryn, this really is a good one! The only change I made was doubling the ham, cause like using pork products with wild abandon!

@elizabethdc - the water should be an inch over the top of the beans - does that make sense? Fill with water until water level is 1 inch over top of beans.

OK, probably too late for nephil's question, but "Artisan Salt" makes an alder-wood smoked salt that might do the trick. A ham hock is pretty salty, so you might need to add salt anyway, and their Alder smoked salt tastes great and goes a long way. It's pricey for salt, but you don't use a lot for seasoning like this.

http://www.artisansalt.com/

This soup is not only inexpensive to make--it's delicious! We've prepared it at least eight times since the recipe originally posted in October.

This comment is also probably too late to be helpful to the original poster, but I have had great success substituting powdered Lapsang Souchong tea (just leaf tea pulverized in a spice grinder) for smoked pork products. I haven't used that trick for this soup, but I routinely sub the tea powder for bacon in pasta recipes.

Oh my goodness! I just found this recipe and finished cooking it up today. Inspired by the comments, I also added red pepper, bay leaf, cumin, oregano, lime juice and chipotle in adobo. At the Mexican shop I stopped at for the chipotle, they did not have a smoked ham hock. So I bought a fresh one and threw in some fabulous smoked bacon I had on hand, which I then removed at the end. I went to taste my final product and could hardly stop eating it! It is soooo good. Thank you, Mrs. Garcia!

Oops. Make that sweet red pepper along with the green.

black bean secret from miami:

When soaking, add a good sprinkle of baking soda. It will help soften the beans.

you're welcome.

About to eat this after cooking all afternoon (following a quick soak--sort beans, cover with water, bring to boil for a minute, take off heat and let sit an hour)--it smells heavenly. I threw in a bit of bacon since I didn't have the ham.