Spilling the Beans on Soup

Prepared Foods, May, 2001 by Laura A. Brandt

Aliza Green, author of The Bean Bible Cookbook, published last year, admits it can be difficult to translate home-style soups into dry mixes or canned soups. She developed various legume-based soups for her cookbook and has also developed commercial soup formulations for clients.

While many of her bean soup recipes are authentic, Green adds her own twist to several of the soup recipes, such as Cuban Black Bean Soup with Sofrito and Smoked Turkey. This is a healthier version of the traditional recipe with ham hocks.

For a standard tomato soup, Green adds Great Northern beans, olive oil, onion, garlic, white pepper and thyme and garnishes it with sharp cheddar cheese. "Garnishing soups is important from a presentation standpoint and for textural contrast," says Green.

Green adds pestos at the end of cooking for several of her soups, such as the Spanish chickpea soup with garlic-mint pesto.

What is the secret to a successful bean soup? "The freshness of the dried beans is one of the keys to a great-tasting soup," says Green. Beans over two-years-old deteriorate in flavor and texture and take longer to cook.

Convenient Soup and Meal Cups with a Latin Flair

Last fall, Goya Foods Inc., Secaucus, N.J., introduced a new line of instant soups and beans/rice blends, called Meals-in-a-Cup. Seven varieties include chicken noodle, green split pea, lentil, black bean and navy bean soups as well as black beans and rice and red beans and rice. The dry products are packaged in paperboard cups, which consumers add boiling water. The products are ready-to-eat in six to eight minutes.

"This new line was developed to provide our consumers with convenient products that are tasty and filling with the hearty flavor of home-cooking," says Ralph Riera, Goya Foods' national marketing manager of rice and beans.

"We have added special blends of spices and ingredients to these meals for an authentic Latin taste," he adds. For example, the company adds the traditional Spanish sofrito--an aromatic blend of vegetables (tomatoes, green peppers, onions, and garlic) cooked in olive oil--to many of its offerings.

"The main challenge in developing soup cups with dried ingredients is getting the quality we want," says Riera. "By using air-dried beans and high-quality spices, we can achieve the flavor and texture profiles we are looking for."

Besides instant soup cups, Goya offers Black Bean Soup (Sopa de Frijol Negro) in a 15-ounce can. This Latin-style soup is popular because it is more like seasoned stew or guisadas, says Riera.