#Yellow Bean Soup

I haven't posted for a while. Been busy with the yard and the garden. It's that time of year. The yard looks good. We raked the old grass from the winter, cut it twice now. We spread fertilizer and sprayed for those pesky dandelions and for now we have them under control. It is next to impossible to keep them out of our lawn. We are between neighbor that don't give a crap about their lawn. For whatever reason. One of them is against spraying because it isn't healthy. He just cuts the grass, never bags, which means all the weed seeds stay in the grass to make new weeds. I bag most of the time and take the grass to the dump where they compost it into soil.

Speaking of seeds--all of my vegetable seeds are in the garden. The lettuce is already sprouting as are the beets and the onions. I also planted 17 Kohlrabi and 6 Kale, but didn't get around to plant my peppers and tomatoes. That's a big job and with the rain these last couple of days I had to put that on hold. It is supposed to be sunny and warm for the next week so, hopefully, tomorrow I can do some transplanting. The soil is still too wet.

I spread nearly 2 yards of fresh soil onto the beds and mixed in plenty of 19-19-19 fertilizer. If everything goes well, we should have a bumper crop. So far, I've caught 4 mice in the trap, which is promising. It means they aren't too many out there. The last couple of years were terrible. The garden was infested with mice. They ate most of our beets. I set out traps and lost count how many I caught. The crows were happy.

Since it rained, I managed to make a pot of soup yesterday. A new recipe for me. I made it once before and I loved the soup. We still have frozen yellow beans in the freezer, which I used. I found the recipe on the internet, but I modified for myself and added different vegetables. The soup turned out well and it tastes great. Here is the recipe. Try it out. You won't regret it.

Yellow Bean Soup with Italian Sausages

Ingredients (makes 10 portions):
•    2 tablespoons of corn oil
•    500g yellow wax beans, cut into 1-2 inch pieces
•    1 medium onion, finely chopped
•    2 cloves of garlic crushed
•    1 medium potato, peeled and diced
•    2 carrots, sliced into disks
•    1 stalk Celery, chopped
•    1 – Parsnip root (chopped)
•    Small handful of frozen peas
•    900 ml Beef Broth
•    600 ml Broccoli water (or just plain water)
•    2 - Italian Sausages (sliced)
•    100 ml sour cream
•    1 teaspoon of corn flour (corn starch)
•    2 teaspoons of Hungarian paprika powder
•    salt (Hys) and pepper to taste
•    dash of hot sauce (only if using mild sausages!)
•    1 Bay leaf (optional)
•    Fresh parsley or dill to serve – optional
Method
1.    Clean and prepare the vegetables
2.    Boil Sausages for a few minutes. Pour off the water.
3.    Slice Sausages into small pieces
4.    Cook the onion and garlic on the oil till translucent
5.    Take off the heat and stir in the teaspoonful of paprika powder
6.    Add the vegetables and cook on a moderate heat for 2-3 minutes while stirring
7.    Pour in the water, add the sausages, drop in the bay leaf (if you have one), salt and pepper to taste, and cook on low heat till the vegetables are tender (50 minutes)
8.    Combine the teaspoon of corn flour and the sour cream evenly, ladle in some of the hot liquid from the soup to even out the temperature between the two, mix well then pour the sour cream mixture into the simmering soup and stir until thickens slightly.

It tastes as good as it looks. Hmmm--Yummy