Carnavalssoep (Limburg Carnival Soup)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large heavy-bottomed soup pot, 5 liters or larger
• •Wooden spoon
• •Ladle

Instructions

1. 1

   Brown the beef

   Heat the oil or butter in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef with a good pinch of salt and cook until it loses its rawness and begins to brown in little crisp-edged pieces. Don't rush this. Pale mince gives you filling; browned mince gives you soup with a floor under it.

2. 2

   Soften the vegetables

   Add the onions, carrots, celery, and red peppers. Cook for eight to ten minutes, stirring now and then, until the onion is glossy and the peppers have relaxed. Add the garlic for the last minute, just until it smells warm rather than sharp.

3. 3

   Darken the tomato

   Stir in the tomato paste, paprika, thyme, and bay leaf. Let the tomato paste cook against the bottom of the pot for two minutes until it darkens from bright red to brick red. This is the small honest step that makes the soup taste cooked rather than assembled.

   If the bottom catches a little, good. If it burns, not good. A splash of stock will loosen the browned tomato bits before they cross the line.
4. 4

   Simmer the base

   Pour in the beef stock and chopped tomatoes, scraping the bottom of the pot clean with a wooden spoon. Stir in the ketchup if using; it is not noble, but carnival is not a monastery. Bring to a boil, then lower to a steady simmer for twenty minutes, lid partly ajar.

5. 5

   Add beans and sausage

   Add the drained white beans and the sliced rookworst. Simmer gently for ten to fifteen minutes, just long enough for the beans to take the tomato and the sausage to warm through. Hard boiling now makes the beans split and the rookworst tired, and nobody needs tired sausage before a parade.

6. 6

   Season and serve

   Taste only at the end, because the stock and rookworst have been salting the pot while you weren't looking. Add black pepper and salt if needed, remove the bay leaf, and scatter over parsley if you like. Serve in deep bowls with bread, or from the pot in mugs if the hallway is already full of coats and costumes.

Chef Tips

• •Use a real rookworst if you can find one, gently smoked and juicy. If you can't, choose a good smoked sausage and cut it thick enough to remain present in the spoon.
• •For a Limburg table, serve this before the parade with soft rolls, rye bread, or whatever bread the baker still had when everyone remembered they needed food.
• •The ketchup is optional, but not shameful. Many Dutch household soups use a little sweet tomato sharpness from the bottle; the trick is to use enough to round the pot, not enough to announce itself.
• •Make it the day before. The beans settle into the tomato, the smoke moves through the broth, and the soup becomes exactly what carnival asks for: ready before the house is.

Advance Preparation

• •The soup can be made one day ahead and refrigerated; reheat gently over medium-low heat, adding a little stock or water if it has thickened.
• •Keeps three days refrigerated. Add fresh parsley only when serving, not before storing.
• •Freezes well before the parsley is added, though the beans will soften slightly after thawing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 460g)