Sup Brenebon, Manado Red Bean Soup
Brenebon is the red kidney bean soup of Manado, in the far north of Sulawesi, where Dutch, Portuguese, and Minahasan cooking all left a mark. The Dutch bruine bonen, brown beans, gave it its name; the islands gave it nutmeg, clove, and a heap of celery and scallion. The usual pot leans on smoked pork or ham hock, but the beans themselves throw enough body and the warm spices carry enough depth that none of it is missed. It stays within the rules easily: no oil, no salt, no coconut milk, just beans, aromatics, and spice, brightened at the end with lime. Serve it over brown rice for a full meal or on its own as a starter.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Kidney beans, dried, soaked overnight
- 1 whole Yellow onions, diced
- 4 cloves Garlic, minced
- 3 wholes Celery, stalks and leaves, sliced
- 2 wholes Carrots (cooking), cut into coins
- 1 cup Frozen corn
- 1/4 tsp Nutmeg, freshly grated
- 2 wholes Cloves
- 2 wholes Bay leaves
- 1/2 tsp Black peppercorns, freshly ground
- 1 tbsp no-salt vegetable bouillon
- 3 wholes Scallions, sliced
- 2 tbsp Lime juice
Method
- Drain the soaked beans, cover with fresh water by two inches, and boil hard for 10 minutes with the bay leaves before you drop the heat to a simmer. Kidney beans carry phytohaemagglutinin, a lectin that only a rolling boil breaks down, so the vigorous start is a safety step, not a suggestion.
- Simmer the beans, partly covered, until they are fully tender, 50 to 60 minutes, topping up with hot water so they stay submerged. A brenebon should have some broth, so keep it loose rather than letting it cook down to a paste.
- While the beans cook, sweat the onion, garlic, and the sliced celery stalks in a few tablespoons of water in a separate pan until soft and translucent, about 8 minutes. Cooking the aromatics down first pulls out their sweetness, which is where a salt-free soup finds its backbone.
- Scrape the aromatics into the beans along with the carrot coins, corn, nutmeg, cloves, black pepper, and the bouillon. Simmer another 15 minutes, until the carrot is tender. Manado cooks lean on nutmeg and clove, warm spices from their own islands, and here they do the work smoked pork would once have done.
- Off the heat, stir in the celery leaves and scallions and squeeze in the lime. The raw greens and the acid go in last so they stay fresh and sharp, lifting a long-simmered pot and standing in for the salt the soup carries almost none of.
Nutrition
Estimated per serving: 200 calories, 11 g protein, 10 g fiber, 55 mg sodium. Computed from USDA FoodData Central reference values for the main ingredients. This is an approximation, not a laboratory measurement. How these are computed.
Cost per serving is estimated from US national-average retail prices for cheap staple forms, using BLS dried-bean prices and USDA produce prices. Prices vary by store and season, so treat it as a guide, not a receipt. How this is computed.
