Portuguese Bean Soup is quintessential to growing up in Hawaii. This is probably the second most common soup that a kid from Hawaii eats behind chicken noodle soup. You’ll find it at many local Hawaii casual dining restaurants. Everyone makes it a little differently. Depending on what brand of Portuguese sausage you use and how you cut the ingredients, each version has a slightly different taste and feel. We could eat it every month!
What is Portuguese Bean Soup?
Portuguese Bean Soup is a soup full of vegetables, kidney beans, and Portuguese sausage. I suspect that it was probably created by the Portuguese immigrants during the plantation days of Hawaii based on caldo verde which main ingredients are cabbage and potatoes. Different regions in Portugal will have ham hock or sausage in the soup or different types of leafy greens.
Steamed white rice probably became a popular side for Hawaii-style Portuguese Bean Soup since there were so many immigrants from different countries in Hawaii working in the plantation fields. The Japanese probably thought that rice would be a great accompaniment to the salty sausage and ham in the soup (they were right). And everyone probably added macaroni to help stretch out the dish because meat was a luxury. (I heard this many times from my mother who would often share the story of how each of her siblings growing up would only get ⅓ of a slice of bacon with a bowl of steamed white rice in their family of 7.)
What type of Portuguese sausage do I use?
Usually, my family uses whatever brand of Portuguese sausage is on sale. They taste differently because of different blends of meats (mostly pork, but sometimes with chicken and/or beef) and combinations of spices. Redondo’s is a popular brand of Portuguese sausage, but my absolute favorite is Franks Foods Inc. made in Hilo, Hawaii. If you can’t find this one, any Portuguese sausage will do!
Health Benefits: Soup
Soup is probably one of the healthiest dishes that you can eat. It helps to hydrate your body and replenish salt that is lost from sweating. My blood pressure is on the lower end and when I start to feel dizzy or lightheaded during the summers, I know that I need to hydrate, eat salty foods, and have more B12 and folate in my diet. Soup can take care of that in one bowl!
It usually has a variety of vegetables. Any vitamins that leach out of the vegetables from cooking just end up in the soup broth. Talk about also being a great way to introduce kids to new vegetables – make a soup that your children already love but add one new vegetable to the mix. A new food with a dish they already love might help them to overlook the strangeness of the new veggie!
If you cook your soup with bone-in meat or use stock made with bones you might also be getting some collagen from the bones into the soup. Then there’s of course protein from any meat or beans you put in the soup. Aside from maybe being more difficult to pack for lunch for work, soup is a great well-balanced meal any time of the week.
If you love Portuguese Bean Soup, you’ll like some of these other Hawaii-inspired recipes that are frugal or made with local ingredients, all with a healthyish twist:
Budget Portuguese Bean Soup
Equipment
- 1 chef's knife
- 1 large cutting board
- 1 5-quart pot
- 1 tongs
Ingredients
- 1 smoked ham hock
- 8 cups water
- 1 medium onion chopped (about 1 ½ cups)
- 3 medium carrots chopped (about 1 ½ cups)
- 2 celery ribs chopped (about 1 ½ cups)
- 8 cups water
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
- 1 large russet potato chopped (about 1 ½ cups)
- 5 ounces Portuguese sausage chopped
- 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
- 2 15-ounce cans kidney beans drained and rinsed
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 cup macaroni uncooked
- ½ large cabbage chopped or sliced (about 4 ½ cups)
Instructions
- Put the ham hock and water in the pot and bring to a boil. Boil for at least 1 hour. (This is a great time to clean and prep your remaining ingredients.)
- Remove the ham hock with the tongs, placing it on the side to cool. Add the onions, carrot, celery, water, salt, potato, Portuguese sausage, and tomato sauce to the pot. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 to 15 minutes until the vegetables are almost tender.
- Cut off any meat on the ham hock and dice into pieces.
- Add kidney beans, macaroni, black pepper, and ham pieces to the pot. Cook for 5 minutes. Then add the cabbage to the pot and cook for another 5 minutes until the macaroni is cooked through.
- Serve as a side dish or as a main dish with a scoop of rice. If you have mac salad then you have a plate lunch! Also tastes great with a roll or slice of toasted sourdough bread.
