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Garbure
Garbure: Béarn and Gascony's thick cabbage and bean soup with confit duck
Shepherds in the Béarn valleys and farmers across Gascony have eaten garbure through the cold months for centuries, and it is still the centrepiece of village rugby-club suppers and winter fêtes. It is a soup so thick that, as people in Pau like to say, the ladle should almost stand up in it: white beans, cabbage, potatoes, leeks and turnips cooked down slowly, finished with pieces of duck confit warmed through in the pot. A ham hock is often added too; that version is a pork dish as well as a duck one, so leave it out if you need to. Serve it in deep bowls with thick slices of country bread. Chef's tip: hold back the salt until the very end, because confit duck and ham hock both season the soup as they warm.
- Total time
- 180 min
- Difficulty
- easy
- Serves
- 6
Ingredients
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Method
0/8 doneStep 1: Drain 10 ½ oz dried white beans (tarbais or haricot), put them in a large pot with 12 ½ cups water (and the ham hock, if using) and bring to the boil. Skim, lower the heat and simmer for 1 hour, until the beans are just starting to soften.
60 minStep 2: Meanwhile, warm 2 tbsp duck fat in a frying pan over a medium heat and cook 1 onion, 2 leeks, 3 carrots and 2 turnips for 10 minutes, until soft and lightly golden.
10 minStep 3: Add the softened vegetables to the bean pot with 4 garlic cloves, 1 bouquet garni (thyme, bay, parsley stalks) and 1 ⅛ lb potatoes. Simmer for 30 minutes.
30 minStep 4: Stir in ½ savoy cabbage and simmer for 30 minutes more, until the cabbage is silky, the beans are creamy all the way through and some of the potato has collapsed into the broth.
30 minStep 5: Scrape most of the fat off 3 confit duck legs (keep it for potatoes), tuck the legs into the soup and simmer gently for 20 minutes, until the meat is piping hot and starts to fall off the bone.
20 minStep 6: Lift out the duck and the ham hock. Pull the meat into large pieces, discarding skin, bones and gristle, and return it to the pot. Remove the bouquet garni.
Step 7: Crush some beans and potatoes against the side of the pot to thicken it further. Only now taste and add salt and black pepper. Don't salt at the start: that is the usual reason garbure ends up too salty to eat.
Step 8: Serve very hot in deep bowls, with a piece of duck in every one.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 560 kcal
- Protein
- 34 g
- Carbs
- 48 g
- Fat
- 24 g
- Fibre
- 14 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does garbure take?
- About 180 minutes in total: 30 minutes to prepare and 150 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 6 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it gluten free?
- Yes, as written. Check the labels on stock, sauces and spice mixes, which sometimes contain gluten.
- Can I make it ahead?
- Yes. It keeps well, so you can cook it earlier in the day or the day before and reheat it.
- What can I use instead of onion?
- 2 shallots per onion.
- What can I use instead of leeks?
- 1 onion per leek.
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