While searching for some South African recipes to post for the series –  Flavors of South Africa for the series started by Nanya of Simply food, I came upon this bean soup. It is a wholesome soup that is a meal by itself or can be paired with buns / bread.


This soup is traditionally done in a heavy bottomed pan . So it takes a long time for the dried beans to get cooked.I have used a pressure cooker so that it gets done in 15 minutes. You can also use a slow cooker. Also Cajun spice is used in the recipe. I substituted it with garam masala.

Meat us also added but I have opted for the vegetarian version here…..

I used:

Dried beans – 1/2 cup[sugar beans / red beans]
Carrot-1, chopped
Tomato -1, chopped
Onion- 1 , chopped
Garlic- 2 pods, chopped
Potato -1, chopped
Beans-5 numbers, chopped
Oil- 1 tablespoons
Garam masala- 1/2 teaspoon
Chilli powder -1/2 teaspoon
Salt to taste
Fresh cream and coriander to garnish

  1. Soak the benas in water for 8 hours/ over night.Drain and keep aside.
  2. Heat oil in a pressure cooker.Saute onion and garlic till translucent.
  3. Put in the tomato and cook till mushy.
  4. Add the soaked beans, chopped vegetables, spice powders, salt and 2 cups of water and pressure cook or 4 hisses / 15 minutes/ till teh beans is cooked but not mushy.
  5. Remove from the cooker, transfer to a serving plate and serve garnished with a swirl of cream and coriander leaves. 
Note :
You can pulverize half the soup to get a thicker consistency.
If you are subscribing to my posts, you might be wondering why the December month’s post is showing up now. It was supposed to be posted in December but I lost the pics so had to redo the recipe once again. I could have posted it without a pic but since a picture speaks a 1000 words, I thought I might as well post it with a decent click.Even if it does not speak a 1000 words, it will at least show how the dish looks ๐Ÿ™‚
Bon appetit…

2 thoughts on “Boontijiesop | South African Bean Soup”

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