Portuguese Bean Soup

By carvalhohm2

This Portuguese dish is a deliciously hearty and rustic soup. Serve with a side of homemade bread or crackers.

Ingredients

• 2 ham hocks
• 1 10-ounce mild Portuguese sausage, thickly sliced
• 1 chorizo sausage, peeled and broken into pieces
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 2 quarts water (8 cups)
• 4 potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 2 celery rib, chopped
• 2 large carrots, chopped
• 1 (15-ounce) can whole stewed tomatoes, broken with your hands
• 1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
• 3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 1/3 cup cider vinegar
• 2/3 cup elbow macaroni
• 3 to 4 cups cabbage, roughly cut
• 2 (15-ounce) cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

Step 1

Place ham hock, sausages, onion, and water into a large pot over high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 1 hour, covered.

Take ham hocks out and remove the meat, roughly chop, and return to soup, discard bones. Stir in potatoes, celery, carrots, stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, garlic and vinegar. Cover, and continue simmering for 1/2 hour, stirring occasionally. Stir in macaroni, cabbage and kidney beans, cook until the macaroni has softened, about 10 minutes. Taste, then add salt and pepper and more water if needed.