Hi, foodies in the Hive!

Bean soup is such a verstile dish. At home, we love it with a thick broth and toppings, although most of the time I just add some root vegetables in the cooking pot.

Today I realized I had some frozen quinoa I had cooked with seasonings and beetroot broth; I decided to use it along with some spring onion to make ripe plantain fingers, fun toppings for a red bean and carrot soup.

This meal has an interesting mix of flavors which is so typical at a Venezuelan table, partly because our culinary inheritance is so varied: the soup is slightly sweet and the plantain and quinoa fingers taste a lot like gyosas--soon I'm making some fingers to eat with soy sauce--. It was all good to go with black sesame coated arepas.

Ingredients

I used red beans Pantera, which are ready to cook. But as we must know, it's good to throw away the first water in which the beans are boiled to eliminate antinutrients and thus be able to digest them better. Anyway, I like this brand because the beans are selected and pretty clean.

For the soup:

200 gr red beans
1 cup peeled and chopped carrot
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup red bell pepper
1/2 cup sweet chili peppers
3 tablespoons crushed garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon cane sugar
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon paprika
sring onion for garnish

For the Fingers:

2 cups steamed ripe plantain
1 cup seasoned quinoa, cooked
1 cup chopped spring onion
pinch of salt
cracked black pepper to taste
1 cup cornstarch for coating
Enough oil to fry

For the arepas:

1 cup PAN corn flour
1 1/2 cup water
pinch of salt
enough black sesame seeds for coating
enough oil to fry

Let's make soup and fingers!

...And arepas.

After I threw the first water in which I'd boiled the red beans, I added 4 glasses of new water.

Then it was time for me to prepare the vegetables and measure the seasonings.

I washed, peeled, and finely chopped all the vegetables and crushed the garlic cloves with the help of my old mortar and pestle.

Besides adding carrot, I also used a little cane sugar as part of the seasoning to achieve a sweeter flavor. Just a little; this customary in my father's town--which has a Creole influence; my husband likes his bean soup with a little salt only, but he's fine the little sweet I add sometimes.

I added all the vegetables and seasonings in the pressure cooker...

...along with the beans and the water. No need to sautee the vegetables. Less fat that this soup won't need as it's super delicious without it.

After the pressure cooker had gained pressure, I let the soup cook for 30 minutes and then removed it from the fire.

While the soup was cooking, it was time to make the arepas and fingers.

I used some leftover dough from breakfast. I'd mixed the flour, water, and salt and let it hydrate for several minutes. The leftover dough was enough for six little arepas, which were donut shaped to achieve crunchiness and a little charm, hehe.

I made them look like flowers just for fun; it's the natural shape you get from pressing with your thumbs and index fingers as you form them.

I fried them in a little oil, which I'd be using to fry the fingers as well.

While I fried the arepas, I prepared the fingers which I meant to fry immediately.

As you can see, I mashed the boiled plantain with the help of a fork.

The quinoa looks pink because I had cooked it in beetroot water. I used it to make spring rolls two months ago--I froze it.

I chopped the spring onion to add it into the mixture.

I also added salt and freshly cracked pepper.

Then I needed to coat the fingers in cornstarch, so I put some into a separate bowl.

I took little portions with a fork to drop them into the cornstarch.

Next, I shaped the fingers with my hands as evenly as possible, being careful not to get the sticky mixture on my own fingers. The cornstarch helps with this.

Once the fingers were completely coated in cornstarch, they were ready to go into the hot frying pan.

I used the same oil where the arepas had just fried. With a little luck, the fingers would pick up the sesame seeds that the arepas had released. That way there would be no waste of ingredients. Plus, the oil scented by the sesame seeds would be a perfect touch.