|
|
Haricot bean and lamb soup, with dill
by
Dr Antigone Kouris-Blazos
|
|
Serves
6-8
Tips:
 |
This
recipe is very easy but it takes a couple
of hours of simmering on the stove till
it is cooked; try cooking it the night
before - it keeps well in the fridge
for 1-2 days, alternatively you can
freeze it.
This soup is like the Greek bean soup
'fasolada' but the dill and tender lamb
gives it a unique more delicious flavour
and it looks more like a casserole -
a great dish for a cold day. |
Ingredients
4
lamb shanks
1
cup haricot beans soaked in 3 cups water
(adding salt will toughen beans)
2 litres cold water
3 celery sticks + leaves, finely chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 large zucchini, finely chopped
400g can chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/4 cup chopped dill
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed.
2 massel vegetable stock cubes and black
pepper
iodised salt (end of cooking, according
to taste)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (end of cooking)
Accompaniments:
bread, olives, fetta, wine
Method
- Soak beans overnight in 3 cups water.
Rinse beans after soaking (do not re-use
the soaking water).
- Bring to the boil 2 litres of water,
add lamb shanks and boil for about 1-1.5
hours.
Take pot off heat and cool down. Place
in fridge for several hours or overnight
and
remove fat from the surface. Remove shanks
and place on a plate.
- Place lamb shank stock (it will appear
like jelly if cold from fridge) on low
heat and bring to a simmer. Add haricot
beans.
- Chop onion, carrot, zucchini, celery
and add to pot.
- Simmer soup for 30 minutes then add
tomato, dill, garlic, pepper and stock
cubes (tomato and stock cubes are added
towards the end of cooking because these
tend to 'toughen' the beans)
- Simmer for a further hour or until
beans are tender.
- Remove meat from lamb shanks (should
be very tender) and add meat to soup.
- Add olive oil at end of cooking to
the pot (this will retain the antioxidants)
- Serve with wholegrain toasted bread.
For an absolutely complete meal accompany
soup with olives, fetta (try reduced fat
fetta) and a glass of wine.
How many times a week should I have
legume dishes?
At least one legume dish a week is desirable.
This recommendation is based on the frequency
of intake of long-lived populations in
the Mediterranean and in Asia. More than
this weekly frequency is recommended for
vegetarians or for people who avoid red
meat. Legumes/soy are a 'meat alternative'
- this means that when you have, for example,
baked beans on toast, it counts as a 'serving
of red meat'.
See also the
HEC Healthy Eating Pyramid
A
study publsihed in 2001 showed that eating
beans a few times a week can help to reduce
heart disease risk. The study showed that
the more beans you eat the less likely you
are to get heart disease.Read
more...
|
