Making beans soup for the first time

It might be a bit weird that I am preparing a simple dish like beans for the first time, but thing is, this dish is cooked so long, and due to this reason, usually it's made in big quantity. At home, we often eat it, but we have a full house there, and I don't make it there, so this is why I am making it for the first time. I decided to make it and whatever is left to froze, because I knew I would have a lot of leftovers.

I made pinto beans, as I am not a fan of white beans and any dishes with it. I used 0.5 kg of it, and I let it in the water for the night because I knew I will make it the next day. This step is not necessary, but it helps beans to cook faster. In total, you will probably need about 3 hours to make it.

First step is putting beans on the stove and having water just a finger or 2 above it (depending on shape and size of your pot). You will leave it there until the water boils, and leave it to boil for a couple of minutes (5-10 minutes). Then stain the beans and repeat the process. This time around, you can also add dry meat, as we call it. That are mostly parts of meat with a lot of bones, like ribs. Again, you can do this only one time, or none, but it's not bad way to clean beans.

When you put it back on the stove for the third time, add a little more water, since this time it will be boiling much longer, and also lower the heat of your stove. It will usually take an hour and a half, or two hours, depending on the beans that you make. While it cooks you can add more water if needed, but also you don't have to, if you like it to be denser. When beans are cooked enough (you can see this by the color of water, or taking out the bean and checking is it soft enough) it's time to add spray (browned flour) and other seasoning. You should most definitely add salt, and other seasoning depends on your taste, you can add pepper, bay leaf, parsley,...

Spray is made by adding 2-3 spoons of flour into the hot fat or oil, mixing it nicely and cooking it, so it becomes homogeneous, and then adding sweet pepper in it, and cooking it a little more. When it's done, add it to the beans and cook it for about 5 more minutes (till it boils again).

And that's all. Many people also add carrot, onions, or something else, but I like it as simple as possible, just like this. Tomato and white cheese go great with this, and I like to add it all together in the plate, as well as one piece of bread.

It's always nice and fun to do new things, and have another "first" in your life. And as basic as this was, it was still nice. My first beans weren't perfect, they were a bit too thick, because my pot was too small, but I fixed it and add more water later, and it was good for the first time :)

All photos used in this article (including the lead image) are original and taken by me.

Thank you for reading my post ^^