For the soup, you will be needing “speckled” beans, also known as borlotti-, cranberry- or Roman beans. Before starting with the soup, make sure to soak the beans for as long as possible, preferably overnight, This will soften them and reduce the cooking time once it’s added to the rest of the soup mixture.
Speckled beans will add a rich creaminess to the soup and has a nutty sweet taste to them. And they are quite the nutritional powerhouses as they are packed with low-fat protein, fibre and folate. They also contain many minerals such as iron, zinc and potassium.
Eisbein for the win
For the best results, we would recommend using Eisbein as the meat ingredient in the soup. Traditional Eisbein is pickled ham hock that is usually cured and slightly boiled. And as the pork boils, it will infuse with the other flavours. And that is exactly what will happen with the pork as it simmers with the garlic, celery, bay leaves, oregano, thyme and lemon.
In the case that you cannot find Eisbein to use in the soup, pork shank will be the perfect replacement.
Melissa Jacobs is a Catering Chef Specialist that learned to cook growing up in a large family and perfected her skills to make food for a large family of her own, weddings and all kinds of small to large events.
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