Recipes from
Burundi

Bean soup
recipes

Vegan
recipes

Bean soup

• 200 GRAM WHITE BEANS, cooked or from a can
• 200 GRAM BROWN BEANS, cooked or from a can
• 2 ONIONS, chopped
• 4 CUPS VEGETABLE STOCK
• 1 BELL PEPPER, cut
• 1 RED CHILI, chopped
• 100 GRAM STRING BEANS, cut
• 1/2 TSP CUMIN POWDER
• HANDFUL BASIL LEAVES, chopped
• 150 GRAM PEANUTS, ground

• 300 GRAM SPINACH
• 1 ONION, chopped
• 2 CLOVES GARLIC, chopped
• 1/2 TSP OREGANO
• 1/2 CUP CREAM
• 4 CUPS VEGETABLE STOCK
• HANDFUL COMMON DAISIES

Put all ingredients together, except the peanuts and the basil leaves; add pepper and salt to taste and bring this to the boil. Simmer for half an hour, add the peanuts and simmer 10 minutes more. Sprinkle with basil leaves.

The Burundese are very fond of their beans and they come in many varieties; they never leave them out in a meal. Sometimes they are mixed with corn, sometimes they are made into soup.

1 July is Independence Day in Burundi. The country had been handed over by Germany to Belgium in 1918 after World War II and became independent in 1962. As a Belgian colony, it was one with Rwanda. Click on culinary calendar for Links between cooking and worldwide history.

Stir-fry the onions and the garlic three minutes. Add the spinach and stir fry two minutes more. Puree the spinach. Add the oregano and the vegetable stock, bring this to the boil, heat for one minute. Add the cream and heat one Minute. Distribute the soup over 4 plates and sprinkle some daisies on the soup.

With daisies from your own garden, you can also prepare sugared daisies.

See also another recipe for spinach soup and one for spicy spinach soup.