Romanian Bean & Salami Soup (Ciorbă de Fasole)

This tummy-cuddling bean soup from Romania uses hunky white beans, diced pork salami and a lip-smacking ruffle of raw onions scattered over at the table.

One of Europe’s most modest cuisines, Romanian food offers a unique intersection of classic Eastern European and Mediterranean styles, with a hint of the East. Something shared by all points of this trifecta is soup - known as ‘ciorbă’ in Romania. This particular soup marries various culinary styles that will feel intriguingly familiar to a lot of people. As a bean soup, ‘ciorbă de fasole’ uses any dry white beans - cannelini, lima beans, butter beans - which we’ll soak and cook from scratch to make a creamy bean ‘stock’. I’ll include recipe notes for canned/jarred beans too. What makes this soup distinct really distinct though: the raw onions. Romanians often enjoy ciorbă with a frizz of raw, sliced onions on top. I highly recommend trying it - it’s adds pure electricity to a winter’s soup. You can also make this soup meat free, as it would be eaten during Lent. Simply remove the cured meats and replace with dried mushrooms and a vegetable stock. Let’s go!